1. Why do we exist? -  In reading science on the Internet over the last few years, we discovered that many sites that featured scientists writing to the public weren't just interested in science; some sites claiming to be about science have political agendas while others only publish articles and findings that present one side of complex issues.  So we set out to accomplish the following:

• We created a site where world-class scientists write articles and discuss issues without being filtered by size or editorial limitations, where there is no political litmus test and we can read great science directly from the source and maybe learn some new things.
• We created a site where everyone who wants to write about science can also do it, regardless of popularity or ideology.  There are other places where scientists can write but writers are lost in a sea of 70 million random blogs.   Everyone is here to read about science and we have 1,800,000 articles read per month so your audience is already built in. You can just write good articles and have fun.
• We created a site where you get paid to write science.    We stay as financially transparent as possible by paying the bulk of the revenue generated by writers to the writers.   The more you write, the larger your audience and the more you make.  You can also donate it to charity.  We keep a little bit to pay for the servers.

We simply could not find a science site that had everything we wanted so we decided to create it.  Since this is a community, you help shape the culture also.   As a part of the community, you can blog and eventually write feature articles syndicated worldwide, chat with friends and much more.   We have incorporated virtually everything in social media we could find.

 2. Who can write here?  - Most of our writers are prominent book authors, research professors and post-docs but anyone can write here.  The only restrictions are you have to write about science and you can't write blogs that are just self-promotion, advertising or links to your personal site - they'll be removed and your account deleted.  We don't get into defining what is science and what isn't science, it's self-evident in most cases. Poems about your cat, for example, are not science but an article on information theory using your cats could be. 

3. Since a lot of the writers are well-known book authors, they will already have an audience.  How do I get one? - Each new blog that is  published will appear on the front page for a short while.  It will also appear on the Science Category pages.  Well-written pieces become popular and they will remain in the front of the main page or category pages.  Just write good content and people will start reading you.  Like anything else, it requires patience and persistence.  The easiest way to get discovered is to join disussions on other articles here or in other places because that leave a URL link to your column.  We also have links to all the other social media sites on each published piece so readers can spread the word for you.

4. Do you censor any content? - No, the only content moderation of any kind will occur if  someone violates the Terms of Use. We're not interested in conspiracy tales or if you think the word 'theory' means something you just made up.  We don't allow advertising, including other sites you write on, in the articles, or teasers that are just links to other websites in the articles.  You can link to other sites or to books you have written in your bio section and your bio appears on everything you write 

 Obviously you can link to articles provided you obey copyright restrictions as spelled out in the Terms of Use.   

 Authors also have moderation ability over the comments in their columns so that might be considered censorship but we recognize that spam and trolling occur and allow authors to prevent that.

5. Do I retain my copyright?   - Yes, you grant us rights regarding publication but you own your work.

6. Getting started.

See the FAQ for specifics on creating articles.

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