ABOUT

• Undergraduate neuroscience journal• Mission: promoting scientific

literacy, growing the neuroscience community, and developing effective science communicators.

WHY?

• Science outreach is critical

WHY?

"So, when you guys do your research, you start with a scientific—what do they call it—postulate or theory, and you work from that direction forward, is that right?... I'm just wondering how that’s related, for example, to global warming and eventual global cooling" 

- Representative Randy Weber (R-TX)

WHY?

“A large majority (82%) [of participants] supportmandatory labels on GMOs,

but curiously about the same amount (80%) also support mandatory labels onfoods containing DNA.”

- Study: OK State University

WHY?

• Neuroscience is amazing• Develop strong writing skills• Become part of the neuroscience

community• Unique experience• Exposure

HOW?

• Organization of GM– Leadership– Staff• Editor• Writer/Blogger• Artist• Designer

– Contributor• Authors• Artists

HOW TO JOIN?

• Attend six (6) meetings• Table for four (4) hours• Contribute to the journal• Read “The Science of Scientific

Writing”• Application and “interview”– Interview = just introduce yourself

BENEFITS

• Concrete position within Grey Matters– Build a body of work/portfolio

• Listed among staff online and in print

• Member only meetings parties– Pre EWN meet and greet– Q&A sessions with neuroscientists– Organized lab tours

• Prizes & t-shirts

The Publication Process

Roles

Authors: Write original articles for publication in the journal

Editors: Work with authors to produce a polished, accurate, well written article

Artists: Work with authors to produce original art piece(s) to accompany their article

Approx. Volume 3, Issue 1 Timeline

Tuesday, 2/17: Article Proposals (Round 1) Due

Approx. Volume 3, Issue 1 Timeline

Thursday, 2/26: Article Proposals considered; authors and editors paired

Thursday, 3/5: Rough drafts due

Friday, 3/6: Evening with Neuroscience!

Thursday, 4/24: Article Proposals (Round 2) Due

Monday, 6/8: Final Drafts Due

How to Submit an Article Proposal

1. Go to greymattersjournal.com

2. Click on “Submit an Article Proposal” (far right)

3. Fill out the form!

Some notes about article proposals...

Notes about Article Proposals

1. Make sure your topic is neither too

simple nor too complicated

a. You’ve only got so much space to write

about it, but it needs to be interesting

too!

2. Do your research thoroughly beforehand

a. Make sure you have at least 3 peer

reviewed sources BEFORE submitting

a proposal

Article Types

Brain Blurbs

Short Articles

Research Articles

Brain Blurb

Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work (peers). It constitutes a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field.

– Wikipedia

What is Peer Review?

Peer-Reviewed Sources● We require our articles to be based off

peer-reviewed sources

● Prior to publication, the article was reviewed for accuracy by an expert in the field○ This allows academics to hold

themselves and their colleagues to a certain level of integrity and excellence

● You will need to provide 3 for a proposal

Peer-Reviewed Sources● National Center for Biotechnology

Information (NCBI) hosts biomedical databases○ PubMed: biomedical literature○ Tools: GenBank, BLAST, etc.

● Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/

Grey Matters Blog

The perfect way to get your writing feet wet!

Write shorter, more colloquial articles to be published on the Grey Matters Blog

We’re always looking for new blog posts!

Interested? Email us at thalamus@uw.edu

Evening With Neuroscience

2014• Panel discussion with

several neuroscience professionals

• HUGE success

• 300+ people

http://greymattersjournal.com/ewn/ewn2014/

Evening With Neuroscience

2015• March 6th from 6-

8:30pm• Contacting panelists• Waiting on funding• Looking for

committee members!

snehai@uw.edu ORthalamus@uw.edu