For Journalists

I need an expert now

We welcome requests from professional journalists reporting for general-interest news outlets that primarily serve a U.S. audience.

We especially encourage local, general assignment, and other reporters who do not specialize in scientific topics to make use of our free services.

Details about eligibility

For capacity reasons, we are unable to assist on:

  • Stories intended for audiences outside the United States
  • Stories for outlets aimed primarily at professional or expert audiences, such as trade publications for physicians or scientists or news sections of peer-reviewed scientific journals
  • Stories for outlets that primarily provide health information or advice
  • School assignments and stories for on-campus publications
  • Content for marketing or advocacy; outlets focused primarily on product recommendations
  • Pitches and stories being developed “on spec”
  • Books, documentaries, and films
  • Fact-checking, accuracy review requests, or stories for outlets that primarily evaluate claims for truthfulness
  • Fact sheets, listicles, or other aggregations of repurposed content
  • Stories that are primarily educational (including non-news-focused general explainers) or historical in focus
  • Requests primarily aimed at soliciting an expert’s opinion on policy, as opposed to relevant scientific evidence and context
  • Additions to stories already published in substantially final form
  • Any request that, in SciLine’s judgment, does not align with journalistic standards of fairness and accuracy
Comments on scientific papers

Out of respect for the time it takes to thoughtfully review scientific papers and reports, we require 24 hours of lead time for requests that call on experts to weigh in on embargoed or published scientific papers, reports, or preprints.

Source diversity

SciLine strives to increase the diversity of scientific voices, stories, and perspectives in the news. We encourage experts from across all disciplines of science and a variety of backgrounds – including gender identity, race and ethnicity, geographic location, level of postgraduate seniority, and other factors – to engage with the media by working with SciLine.

Questions? Contact us at sciline@aaas.org.

 

I am a professional journalist working on a story for a news outlet that serves a primarily U.S. audience, and I would like SciLine to connect me with a scientist.

SciLine’s matching service operates from 8 a.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET on weekdays. We ask for at least 2 working hours of lead time to fulfill source requests.

My deadline (SciLine will only seek sources available before this time):

 

If you are covering a study, please provide the following:

 

We will respond soon by email. You may need to check your spam folder and/or mark sciline@aaas.org as a safe sender.