getting started - publishing

Getting Started - Publishing

 

overview

Sciphile.org serves a population of science lovers and educators by providing them with free ideas and materials for science education and entertainment. It relies on a community of users and contributors like you to browse and test materials, rate lessons, comment, share, and contribute. If you benefit from our site — and we sincerely hope you do — the best way you can say thank you is to contribute your own brilliant science lesson. Whether it’s a lesson you developed in the classroom, something you taught your kid on a rainy afternoon, or just a clever idea you think is entertaining, we’d love to hear about it.

Writing a lesson at sciphile.org is a fairly simple process, much like using a word processor. Once you sign up for a free member account, you can use the “ADD CONTENT” link in the member menu to start a new lesson. See our Getting Started – Authoring guide for details.

Lessons for sciphile.org generally work best when they incorporate a single engaging activity or demonstration, focused on explaining just one or two scientific principles. More complex lessons may be broken down into several individual sciphile.org lessons.

Please keep in mind that our primary audience is made up of people who want to teach science, who may require a detailed level of explanation in order to teach the lesson effectively. That explanation may go beyond what is brought into the classroom. Links to additional outside resources are often helpful.

Teachers also require a complete set of materials. If the lesson includes prepared ancillary items such as worksheets, quizzes, lecture slides, or figures, so much the better.

Please see our Author Guidelines for more suggestions about writing lessons.

begin publishing

By default, when you write a lesson at sciphile.org, your work is private, available only to you and possibly a limited number of sciphile.org members indicated in the settings at the bottom of the edit page. However, once you have written your lesson or curriculum, you have the option of submitting it for general publication.

Begin the publication process by clicking the “ask to review” button at the bottom of the lesson or curriculum you wish to publish. When you click this button, the lesson is frozen so that it cannot be changed, and it is sent to our editors to seek outside review. Generally, we try to send publication requests to at least one professional scientist in the field, and at least one educator. Their charge is to review the scientific accuracy and completeness of the lesson, and to suggest any possible improvements, and advise our editors about the suitability of the work for publication.

Please be aware that the review process may take several weeks. All of our reviewers are volunteers, with their own day jobs to worry about. Patience is sometimes necessary. Even if your first effort is not published, please consider trying again. Everyone has gems worth sharing, and we’d like to encourage you to do so.

If the request passes review, we make the lesson publicly accessible with your byline, mark it as peer-reviewed, and add it to the list of public works on your account page. In this sense, publication at sciphile.org is similar to publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and you are welcome to include a link to your sciphile.org account page in your curriculum vitae.

We're looking forward to hearing from you.