THIS VIEW OF LIFE

Editorial Guidelines

THIS VIEW OF LIFE welcomes ideas for articles on recent scientific discoveries in any field of evolution, reviews of scientific studies and books, as well as explorations or critiques of current trends in evolutionary theory. Our preferred authors are scientists or scholars who have extensive first-hand knowledge of the field that they describe and, preferably, have made significant contributions to it, or science journalists with the experience and background to deeply explore the topics they propose covering. The model we strive for is between that of Nature News and Scientific American in which complex scientific ideas are explained simply, concisely, and with a minimum of jargon. We strongly encourage potential contributors to read recent pieces published on TVOL for a sense of form, style, level of complexity and specialization typical of our articles.

For First-Time Authors:

Before writing or sending us a completed manuscript, please send us a proposal letter (two to three paragraphs is usually sufficient) that briefly summarizes:

• The subject of the article

• How you would tell the story of this subject

• The practical and theoretical significance of this subject

• How this article would differ from previous coverage of the topic (if any) in This View of Life or other media

• Why this story is timely. (For instance, we prefer stories that include research findings from the past two years.)

• Your credentials for writing about the topic

• A list of some recent papers on the subject that you plan to cite

• Any other information that you think would make the article interesting to our audience.

For Invited Commentaries:

Authors of invited commentaries typically work with a Topic Editor or Editors in coordination with the TVOL Managing Editor. Topic Editors will collect all finished manuscripts prior to publication of the series and it is recommended that they be stored in a shared Dropbox or Google Drive folder. Authors need to ensure that drafts contain working links (if applicable) and complete bibliographies of the literature cited and/or further reading suggestions. We prefer citations to use Chicago style footnotes but authors are welcome to use APA if that is the standard in their field. Authors should also highlight pull-quotes as well as provide brief bios and high-quality headshots for their author page. Any illustrations or graphics should be provided separately with files named in a way that can correspond to the essay they belong to and clear indications in the text where each image should appear. All illustrations and graphics must be owned by the author, under a Creative Commons license, or copyright free.

Keep in mind these tips:

• Generally speaking, This View of Life presents ideas that have already been published in the peer-reviewed technical literature.

• Our articles are geared to general readers interested in science and technology. We avoid jargon and equations.

• We are looking for authors who can convey ideas with clarity and concision. Lengths of feature articles vary; the average length of a published article is approximately 1,000 to 1,500 words.

Send all proposals and manuscripts electronically to:

Eric Johnson (Managing Editor)

editor.thisviewoflife@gmail.com

Include your last name and the word PROPOSAL or DRAFT in the subject line.