@siricarpenter
ON SABBATICAL THROUGH 4/19. Co-founder, executive director, & EIC of @theopennotebook.bsky.social, journalist & editor, @Sciencewriters.org past president. siricarpenter@theopennotebook.com. She/her.
🍾🎉🥰 Many thanks to our generous board members at @theopennotebook.bsky.social for creating this additional matching pool for the final hours of 2025. Donations made today will be matched by our board members!
Fewer than 3% of journalists are trained to cover science, health or the environment. And access to that training is scarce and inequitable.
It's why @theopennotebook.bsky.social works so hard to create free resources anyone can use. Please donate if you can: www.theopennotebook.com/15thannivers...
We are SO CLOSE — we're just $33 away from making our matching goal this year! Thanks to matching donors like @sabs.bsky.social and many others for helping make this possible! www.theopennotebook.com/15thannivers...
If you’re thinking about year-end gifts & if you care about the work we do @theopennotebook.bsky.social, please consider making a donation to help keep our free training, mentoring & professional development resources going. We could use your help! 🧪 www.theopennotebook.com/15thannivers...
Re-upping this important guide today, from @tylersantora.bsky.social. 🧪 #transhealthcare #transhealth
Absolutely honored for my book to be featured on The Open Notebook this way! TON is an incredible resource for us science journalists, and for them to include details of my reporting for The Stronger Sex makes my heart smile. Thanks @skylerdware.bsky.social & @siricarpenter.bsky.social for this!
Under the Trump administration, decimated health and science funding in the U.S. has become everyday news, leaving journalists with the challenge of what to cover and how to contextualize cuts for their audiences. Lucila Pinto spoke with @cmerref.bsky.social and others to bring you this guide. 🧪
Help us this giving season to continue strong providing these resources and more during the next 15 years. We’re proud of how far we’ve come—and know there’s so much more to do together—to support journalists worldwide. 🧪
If you can, and if you value what we do, or if you've benefited from our resources, or shared them w/ your students or colleagues, please consider making a gift today. Whether it's $10 or $100 or $1000, we appreciate you very, very much. #GivingTuesday www.theopennotebook.com/15thannivers...
We're very, very proud of the work we've been doing for the past 15 years at The Open Notebook. We very, very much want to keep doing it.
But ✴️ we need your help. ✴️
Not everyone who benefits from TON can afford to financially support our work. Many cannot.
We are committed to paying all our contributors, editors, fact-checkers, mentors, course instructors, etc. fair wages for their work–and we've raised the fees we pay our writers every year for the past 6 years. How many pubs do you know that are reliably *increasing* their pay rates every year?
But doing this work is very much NOT free. In fact, it's expensive. To take one example: Publishing one feature article at TON costs more than $5,000, and a good deal more if it's translated into Spanish.
We've published hundreds & hundreds of articles. 10,000+ people have taken at least one of our online courses. Hundreds of journalists have taken part in our mentoring programs. Nearly 2K journalists have joined our global science writers database. And it's all free–to anyone, anywhere in the world.
That third need is where @theopennotebook.bsky.social Notebook comes in. For 15 years, we've been providing in-depth, practical, accessible training, mentoring, and educational support for journalists who cover science.
I've also seen how the journalists are urgently asking for three things: funding to report stories that matter, freedom to pursue true stories wherever they may lead, and training to do it at the highest possible level.
... about emerging infectious diseases ... about the promises and perils of AI ... about scientific integrity ... about the terrible social costs of inequity in science ... about how advancing autocracy both in the U.S. and globally is threatening the scientific enterprise.
People in Brazil and Kenya and Canada and Berlin and Nigeria and Egypt and China and the U.S. and elsewhere who are working under increasingly challenging conditions to inform the public about how climate change is altering our world ...
🧪 This is going to be a long one, friends. Buckle up.
This week I'm attending the World Conference of Science Journalists #WCSJ2025 in Pretoria, South Africa, and this gathering been an opportunity to get a close-up look at the dogged, fearless work of so many journalists all over the world—
Really good, specialized #sciencejournalism is crucial for #publichealth and the advancement of knowledge, but not as easily found as it should be in most media. This is a cause worth supporting if you're able.
@theopennotebook.bsky.social
✨Thank you✨ to @laurahelmuth.bsky.social for setting the bar so high in the How-to-Be-a-Person department. I love this reflection on how to say thank you. lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/24/h...
Image of a smiling woman outdoors and the following quote: I decided to give to The Open Notebook because it is more than just a how-to site; it's an organization on a mission to improve science communication all over the world, and helping journalists access opportunities that seemed inaccessible while becoming better reporters and humans in the process. Myrial Vidal Valero. Journalist (Mexico City)
The Open Notebook is, says Miriam Vidal Valero, an invaluable source of information, a space for inspiration and connection, and a resource for tools to report with sensitivity. 🧪https://www.theopennotebook.com/15thanniversary/
A poster for the World Conference of Science Journalists in Tshwane, South Africa that features the images of five science journalists who will offer a panel discussion called: Critique of Science, Hoe to teach that skill. It includes the text: Journalism training often does not acknowledge the skills needed for sound reporting on the climate, health, technology and. other sciences, and why it is important to society. Science journalists from four continents will share tolls, experiences and resources on how they train other reporters to tackle science better.
On Dec. 3, @siricarpenter.bsky.social will join @kossibalao.bsky.social, @mmeagnes.bsky.social, Magali Reinert and Lesley Cowling for a panel at #WCSJ2025 focused on equipping reporters with the skills to report about science. www.wcsj2025.org/programme/se...
15 years ago, @theopennotebook.bsky.social started as a labor of love. Today, TON is a leading source of training, mentoring, & professional support for journalists worldwide. We need your help now more than ever. Please help make sure this critical work continues. Donations will be matched!
Reporters covering crime and public safety can strengthen their stories with scientific evidence. Here’s how to avoid common pitfalls and find ideas, resources and more. This week, the latest in our series of free Science Reporting Quick Tips, with @sciline.org. 🧪
Many freelance journalists lean on writing-adjacent work, even outside journalism, to support their passion for reporting and writing, writes @bwfund.bsky.social early-career fellow @skylerdware.bsky.social in this story w/ @hannahseo.com, @kkdfv.bsky.social, @jtsangwrites.bsky.social, and others. 🧪
You don’t need to be a science reporter to cover science well. The Science Reporting Navigator from The Open Notebook and @rjionline.bsky.social helps any reporter confidently incorporate scientific evidence, perspectives, or context into their reporting— regardless of background or deadline. 🧪
An event space full of wonderful people.
Thank you all of you who made @theopennotebook.bsky.social’s 15th birthday party at #SciWri25 so special! That was a night I’ll never forget. ❤️
Advancing High-Quality Science Journalism: Challenges and Pathways Forward (November 13, 1-2:30 ET)
I'm excited to join @laurenfeldman.bsky.social, @tracybaim.bsky.social, @timafranklin.bsky.social, & @columbiajournalism.bsky.social's Duy Linh Nguyen Tu for a @nationalacademies.org session on strategies for advancing high-quality science journalism. Thurs, 11/13 (1 PM ET). Register: bit.ly/3WJZGYW
So far we've received applications from 49 countries for @theopennotebook.bsky.social's early-career fellowship. If you're looking for an intensive learning experience and the chance to work with the TON team, don't miss this chance! Deadline: tomorrow, 10/31. www.theopennotebook.com/early-career...
I'm very much looking forward to this conversation at #SJF25 tomorrow with @scchak.bsky.social, @raminskibba.bsky.social and Emily Laber-Warren! It's at 11:20 ET. Join us!