Interested in writing a guest blog post? Great! Here are a few tips to help.
Blog posts are relatively short, typically a maximum of 1,000 words. Posts are written in the third-person using ‘popular science’ language – i.e. no jargon or heavy statistics. Posts may be written individually or co-authored.
Other than that, there is plenty of room for creativity! Our previous guest contributors have used a range of different styles, for example:
- Some authors choose to just give a brief overview of their paper (e.g. strategic pauses in female elephant seals)
- Others go into a bit more of the specific details (e.g. why some choughs do better than others)
- Several have focused on the context around their research (e.g. badgers and disease ecology)
- Or on a particular methodology (e.g. new technologies for listening to bats)
- A few have gone the ‘very creative’ route, describing things from the animals point of view (e.g. vulture high society)
- The creative route has also been used to try and change public opinion about some species (e.g. scaly not scary)
- We also regularly get into the ‘the story behind the paper’ (e.g. dominance hierarchies)
- Or even discuss the background story as a conversation (e.g. understanding ecosystem function (and each other))
Photos are gratefully received and will be fully credited.
When submitting your post, please also include a few short sentences to introduce yourself.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your potential blog post in more detail, please email Simon Hoggart in the Journal of Animal Ecology editorial office (admin@journalofanimalecology).
