Job Description

Early-Career Fellowship Program

Applications for the 2026 fellowship period are now open!

The Open Notebook offers a paid, part-time fellowship program for early-career science journalists. During the course of this fellowship, fellows work with a mentor to plan, report, and write articles for publication at The Open Notebook and become part of the TON editorial team. This one-year program offers fellows the opportunity to explore their career interests and passions and to sharpen their skills as part of a talented, supportive, diverse community of past and present fellows and mentors. This fellowship is made possible through the generous support of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, which has supported this program since 2013.

Key Details

Length: 12 months (part time)
Start Date: February 23, 2026
Location: Remote
Stipend: $6,600
Deadline: October 31, 2025

The Fellowship Experience

During this remote, part-time fellowship, each fellow will pitch, report, and write articles for publication at The Open Notebook—a mix of “story behind the story” interviews and reported features. They will have weekly phone or video meetings with a mentor who is an experienced science journalist and who will help them shape story ideas, provide reporting and writing guidance, edit fellows’ article drafts, and offer general craft and career-development advice and guidance.

Fellows and mentors also take part in a Slack discussion group composed of other current and former fellowship participants and TON editors. During the fellowship, fellows will participate in cohort-based activities in the fellowship Slack community. Membership in this community will continue after the fellowship ends.

Eligibility

• The fellowship is open to early-career science journalists.
  • If you live outside the U.S., you are welcome to apply.
• Some training and/or experience in writing for the general public is a requirement for this fellowship.
  • You do not need to have extensive experience or training, but you do need to have some.
• Science journalists (or aspiring science journalists) must have fewer than three years of regular professional science writing experience.
  • Internships and student work do not count toward the fewer-than-three-years requirement.
  • Exceptions to this requirement may also be made for cases in which an applicant has more than three years of professional science writing experience but some or all of that experience is not in English.
• Applications, including writing samples and letters of recommendation, must be in English.
  • Materials translated into English from another language are acceptable.

“My mentor and the editors at TON encouraged me to pursue my reporting interests with my fellowship articles, and provided thoughtful, well-explained feedback that was easy to learn from and helped me improve the quality of my drafts for the next assignment. I’m so grateful that TON took a chance on me, because I went from feeling lost and intimidated in science journalism to more confident and excited to ask questions and share with my peers.” Emma Gometz2024 Early-Career Fellow

“I owe my whole career to The Open Notebook. Having TON take a shot on me was monumental, in a country like Mexico where there was no clear path. That gave me the courage to take the next steps in my career. That’s why it’s always been The Open Notebook for me.” Rodrigo Pérez Ortega2017 Early-Career Fellow

“The TON fellowship is a primary reason why I am still a science journalist, regularly reporting on public health. The fellowship solidified my writing skills, and connected me with colleagues and mentors whose advice I still trust today. It sharpened my interviewing skills, and taught me to laser focus on writing clear-cut advice. The skills I gained as a fellow were the start of a years-long master course I’m still enrolled in.” Katherine J. Wu2020 Early-Career Fellow

“The Open Notebook’s early-career program is one of the few training opportunities open to all young journalists in the world. The generosity that permeated the fellowship experience has become a cornerstone of my approach to science journalism. Since the fellowship, I’ve become a fierce advocate for democratizing science journalism, particularly in Latin America.” María Paula Rubiano A.2021 Early-Career Fellow

“The Open Notebook‘s fellowship program did so much to demystify what had felt like a daunting profession. TON’s rigorous editorial process, long runway to publication, and commitment to including actionable advice in each feature pushed both my reporting and writing craft forward. Mostly, though, TON connected me with a community of journalist editors and sources alike who were endlessly generous in sharing the big ideas they weigh in their work.” Kate Fishman2024 Early-Career Fellow

“My TON fellowship was an essential springboard as I transitioned from science into journalism. It gave me the opportunity to interview my idols and learn how they performed my dream job. I still rely on many of the tips I gleaned from reporting my fellowship stories. My mentor also helped me navigate the inevitable ups and downs of launching a freelance career. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would not be where I am today without the fellowship.” Julia Rosen2015 Early-Career Fellow

“Coming from academia, The Open Notebook’s early-career fellowship program taught me how to be a journalist through interviews with dozens of other journalists. Writing about writing built my understanding, confidence, and rigor, and with the help of my incredible TON mentors, I’ve since had the opportunity to write at some of my dream outlets. I owe my career to this place.” Celia Ford2022 Early-Career Fellow

“The TON Fellowship was foundational to my career as a science journalist. Plus, never would you find a kinder, more caring, and more talented family of peers and veterans who are eager to help early-career journalists like me in navigating the craft and industry.” Shi En Kim2022 Early-Career Fellow

“I was an early-career fellow at The Open Notebook in 2023, and there hasn’t been a major step in my career since then that doesn’t make me think about all the benefits I gained from my fellowship experience. TON gave me my first opportunity to write a long-form feature story—something I hadn’t done before because I didn’t think my writing skills in English (a language that isn’t my own) were good enough. That experience made me feel much more confident in myself as a writer.” Humberto Basilio2023 Early-Career Fellow

“My mentor and the editors at TON encouraged me to pursue my reporting interests with my fellowship articles, and provided thoughtful, well-explained feedback that was easy to learn from and helped me improve the quality of my drafts for the next assignment. I’m so grateful that TON took a chance on me, because I went from feeling lost and intimidated in science journalism to more confident and excited to ask questions and share with my peers.” Emma Gometz2024 Early-Career Fellow

“I owe my whole career to The Open Notebook. Having TON take a shot on me was monumental, in a country like Mexico where there was no clear path. That gave me the courage to take the next steps in my career. That’s why it’s always been The Open Notebook for me.” Rodrigo Pérez Ortega2017 Early-Career Fellow

Time Commitment

This is a part-time, remote fellowship. The fellowship involves reporting and writing four articles of 1,500-2,000 words for The Open Notebook, as well as meeting regularly with an assigned mentor and taking part in editorial discussions and cohort-based activities on Slack. We estimate that for most fellows, the fellowship takes about 5-7 hours per week on average; however, the amount of time the fellowship takes will depend on fellows’ experience and working style as well as the phase in the reporting/writing/editing process for any given article. Some weeks will almost certainly require more time and some will require less.

PLEASE NOTE: Although it is part-time, this fellowship requires a significant weekly time commitment, and juggling the fellowship along with other commitments can be challenging. Before applying, please consider carefully whether you will be able to devote sufficient time to completing articles as specified in the fellowship description. We have a rigorous editorial process and fellows must be committed to meeting article deadlines and filing stories on time and turning around revisions on schedule. This includes making time for 1) conducting phone interviews with sources, ordinarily during U.S. daytime hours; 2) weekly phone or video meetings with mentors; 3) multiple rounds of editing and revision for most stories; 4) annotating stories for fact-checking; and 5) participating in conversations in the fellowship Slack community.

Selection Criteria

Priority will be given to applicants who demonstrate:

• A strong intention to work primarily as a professional science journalist. (Note: This fellowship is intended for people whose main goal is to do journalism, as opposed to other forms of science communication.)
• Some training and/or experience writing about science for the general public (it does not have to be extensive)
• Some understanding of the science journalism profession, the challenges science journalists commonly face, and the ways in which you would like to grow as a science journalist
• Familiarity with The Open Notebook and the types of topics we tend to cover
• An ability to generate good story ideas suitable for The Open Notebook
• A commitment to delivering your best work and being conscientious about deadlines
• Strong writing ability (If English is not your first language, we do take this into consideration and do not expect flawless writing. However, for a successful experience in this fellowship you must have a fairly high level of proficiency in English.)

Required Application Materials

The application form for this fellowship includes the following:

• Responses to questions about:
  • Why you are interested in this fellowship and what you hope to learn
  • Your prior training and/or experience in writing stories about science for the general public
  • Any particular skills, interests, or perspectives that you would bring to this fellowship
  • Your overall plans for during the fellowship period (for example, will you simultaneously be finishing a dissertation? Freelancing? Seeking full-time employment somewhere? Doing something else?) 
• Short proposals for two TON features or multimedia stories that you think would be suitable for publication at The Open Notebook. These can take the form of behind-the-story writer interviews; reported features on some element of the craft of science writing; roundtable discussions; or some other creative, feature-length project centered on the craft of science writing. Please familiarize yourself with the types of stories that The Open Notebook publishes. (Note: These are brief, 100-word proposals, not full-scale pitches.)
• A resume or CV
• One letter of reference. This can be from a professor, editor, mentor, supervisor, or other colleague—whoever you think can best speak to your skills and qualities as they relate to science journalism and to this fellowship experience.
• Up to two writing or multimedia samples of work aimed at the general public (not scientific/academic writing). If you are sharing audio or multimedia clips, you can simply put the URLs for the work into a PDF to upload in this section. (Samples must be in English. Translated materials are acceptable.)
• Optional: Additional information about you. We strongly encourage writers from all types of backgrounds to apply. If you are a member of any group or community that has historically been marginalized or underrepresented in U.S. journalism, we invite you to let us know. This is entirely optional, and any information you disclose will be kept confidential

Deadline

Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central time on October 31, 2025.

(Note: The deadline for reference letters is November 7, 2025. We recommend that you notify letter-writers well in advance of the deadline so that they have time to write you a well-considered letter.)