Submission Guidelines
Here is a template for you to prepare a post!
We invite posts that primarily detail ecology being done at Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) but are open to posting blogs on topical subjects to the ecological community at-large. Blogs post monthly or bi-weekly. We have created this form for folks to sign up for a monthly, scheduled posting but also invite folks to submit posts at anytime that we can schedule accordingly!
Please see the submission guidelines below for details on how to submit a post. Feel free to email us using the Contact Us page with any questions.
Audience: This is a science community blog where posts are written by ecologists geared towards both the scientific community AND a general audience. Posts can be written for either audience but when writing for a more general audience please limit the use of jargon and technical terms and ensure complex ecological processes are adequately explained in general terms.
Proofreading and Grammar: Please check your piece at least four times for typos. We do not copyedit posts. The editor will read through the post and correct outstanding errors but please ask a couple friends to read over your post for clarity and provide remarks before posting.
Length: Blog posts often work best by targeting the 500-1000 word range, but both shorter and longer posts are acceptable. Similarly, titles should be fewer than 60-70 characters and avoid sensationalism (e.g. click-bait). Excerpts of posts should also at most be 100 words.
Images: At least 1 image (but can include more than 1) should be included in your post. Ideally, this image will be a high-quality image related to what is being described in the post. Please submit photos as SEPARATE attachments when submitting posts. If you are republishing an image from the internet, please see this guide as to how to find images you can legally republish.
Keywords: Please include 3-5 keywords to tag your post with.
Author Biography: A 3-5 sentence bio and a picture of you to go at the end of the post that can include links to your lab website/university/social media handles/email address if specified.
References: When including references, either imbed links to reference directly in text as a hyperlink (click here for How-to guide on using hyperlinks) or as a list of references at the bottom of a post. Do not include references within submitted posts as footers. Including,
Links: Embed links within the body of your text. (The hyperlink shortcut in Word is ctrl-k for pc, cmd-k for mac.)
Where to submit: Send all submissions to llamb009@fiu.edu and Luke will get in touch with you. Please submit each image as a separate attachment.
Template for submission
Title: [Title in sentence case, no more than 60 or 70 characters]
Author: [First Lastname]
Keywords: [3 to 5 keywords associated with post]
Post: [Body of text. Approximately 500-1000 words suggested]
Author biography: [At your discretion. At most, a brief paragraph describing your background and experience. May include affiliation.]
Image caption and credit: [a brief description of the image (for accessibility), attribution and link to image source if appropriate]
Questions? Email llamb009@fiu.edu. Luke is happy to answer questions regarding best practices when it comes to writing blog posts or to act as a soundboard for ideas on what you’d like to write!
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