By joining the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) you will be connected to over 500 like-minded science communications professionals. We will help you find out what is going on, keep you plugged into the gossip and relevant opportunities, and advertise yourself to commissioning editors.

Our private online discussion group - ABSW-L

Our discussion group is the ABSW's hidden gem. This list is open only to members, and allows journalists to have frank discussions about work and life. We get the inside scoop on gossip, networking, jobs, prizes and foreign trips. It is the science journalist’s water cooler, the place where we moan about life, gossip about work, gloat about our little triumphs, and share a joke. It is a good place to find out first what is happening. Now the list is better than ever with our regular Freelance Pay Survey.

Freelance pay survey

Ever wanted to know what rates other journalists are getting? Ever felt at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiations with editors? Find out what rates different publications pay, and anonymously submit your own pay rates, with the ABSW's Freelance Pay Survey -- circulated every month or so on the ABSW-L discussion list. Pitching for large projects can sometimes feel like a shot in the dark, but if we share the information we have, we can all benefit.

Events

Our events range from parties, such as our famous post-Christmas party in London, to seminars. Seminars have covered Speed Dating with Editors, Writing a Science Book, Pitching, Copyright and Intellectual Property, Podcasting, Interviewing, Feature Writing, Writing a Popular Science book and Science Comedy. Training is popular, and this year we held a Journalism 2.0 seminar that updated members on all latest internet tips and tricks for journalists. An annual lecture, a genomics trip and regional meetings are being planned. Our regional groups are expanding in Brighton, Bristol, and the North. A new group in Cambridge is also being discussed.

Website

Our new website offers a member's only area with the ability to contact other members of the society, the ability to edit your membership detail and control exactly what you share with other members. It will also allow you to chose exactly what (if anything) you share with the rest of the world on the public area of the site. Many of our members have been offered work through this website, and a better-promoted directory is likely to be of great help to members.

The member's only area also contains a wiki-writing section where a number of our members are developing tools for you to use in the form of answers to very common questions in our trade, whether it is about freelance accounts, recording equipment, payment or pitching.

Newsletter - The Science Reporter

Join the ABSW and you will receive the The Science Reporter, our newsletter, up to six times a year. This newsletter is delivered electronically, directly to your inbox and contains news, features, gossip, debates, books by members, jobs, trips and special offers. There is also a news and feautres section on this website and a twitter feed. In fact there are many places you can find us online.

Group offers

We are always looking to increase value for members and we currently have a group subscription on trial to the headline and caption writing tool Phrasefinder.