First Opinion, STAT’s platform for opinion and first-person essays, welcomes submissions about topics related to the life sciences, including policy, regulation, health care, the practice of medicine, the biopharma industry, and more. Our writers include physicians, policymakers, patients and advocates, scientists, biopharma executives, politicians, and more.
We love to publish pieces by people with existing name-recognition and platforms, but a big name isn’t enough for us to accept it without a compelling argument. Nor is name recognition necessary: People on the frontlines of medicine — including physicians, nurses, researchers, students, and especially patients and family members — are central to what we do, as are policy experts.
A note on AI
- First Opinion abides by STAT’s artificial intelligence use policy and discloses to readers any use of AI beyond routine tasks like the use of transcription software and search tools. Please disclose any use with your submission.
- You may not use AI to write any part of your piece, including short snippets of text. There are three reasons for this: 1) It undermines reader trust. 2) AI-written text is sometimes plagiarized from previously published works. 3) It’s just not very good. It tends to make your writing flatter and less engaging, and we want to hear your authorial voice. So do readers. We also strongly recommend against the use of AI for editing and formatting. Using it for grammar and spelling is fine, so long as it does not actually write anything.
Now that that’s out of the way, here are a few big-picture things we want you to know about First Opinion:
We believe it is important to air a wide range of perspectives. That means sometimes publishing essays by writers with ties to industry or consumer advocacy groups or individual companies. Such ties do not necessarily disqualify writers from contributing to First Opinion, but it’s absolutely crucial they be fully and transparently disclosed to readers and to the editor. Please note any potential conflicts when you send your submission. Once an essay has been accepted, authors are asked to fill out an agreement that helps ensure this transparency.
We understand that many of the scientists, executives, physicians, patients, politicians, and others who submit First Opinion essays are not professional writers and may rely on friends, colleagues, or communications experts to help them distill and shape their thoughts. Such assistance does not disqualify writers from contributing to STAT.
But we ask writers to disclose any help they received as we evaluate the merits of their submissions. Any first-person piece must reflect the authentic experiences and views of the author(s), and the author(s) alone. (Wondering about AI? Keep reading.)
We receive many more submissions each week than we can publish — this is a very small team. We often have to turn away great pieces because there simply is not enough time, because we have recently published on the topic, or because it otherwise doesn’t meet our needs at the moment.
What we like
- We are looking for crisp essays that make one strong, surprising, conversation-starting argument that will be of interest to STAT’s readers. Examples include a call to keep cadavers in medical education, a close look at why appealing an insurance denial is so overwhelming, and a proposal to reform the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
- Writing about a topic immediately in the news is a plus.
- The argument should be something readers can’t find anywhere else. It should challenge popular opinion, add nuance, or add a first-person perspective that is missing from the discourse. For example, a microbiologist wrote about how the wellness industry is hurting pets, and a dentist trained in India wrote about how strange it is to see the fluoride debate in the U.S.
- The writing should be genuinely persuasive. Ideally, some readers should disagree with your argument or at least say to themselves, “I never thought about it this way before.” If everyone already agrees, or if you’re only writing for people who already agree with you, it’s not a fit for First Opinion.
- We like to see some first-person narrative fairly high in the article (“My work helping draft new guidelines for prescribing opioids has given me a bird’s-eye view of …” or “As the founder of a biotech startup, I …”).
- Personal stories are even better. Establishing a personal connection between the writer and the topic helps readers evaluate the writer’s authority. (For example, after FDA approval of a new drug for schizophrenia, a patient wrote about why she’s reluctant to consider taking it.)
- Please write in a conversational style for a sophisticated general audience. Think 200-level undergraduate course rather than graduate seminar. Keep the jargon and technicalities to a minimum.
The details
- Shorter is better than longer: 900 to 1,000 words is the sweet spot.
- We use links to sources; please include them with your submission. They should be embedded on the text (like this) rather than in footnotes. For research studies, please use links rather than the article name and authors.
- We generally cap the number of authors at three, with limited exceptions when the number of authors strengthens/helps make the argument. We try to limit the number of authors because the writer’s voice is such an important part of a good First Opinion essay. The more names on the byline, the more the voice gets watered down.
- We engage in a collaborative editing process at First Opinion. You and the editor will go back and forth two or more times to land on a version of the essay that represents your point of view and will appeal to our readers. We will make changes to make it feel like a STAT First Opinion essay and strengthen your argument. We are always open to author feedback on edits and headlines.
- We cannot pay for First Opinion essays. We can offer a small honorarium in some very limited circumstances.
- We do not recognize health awareness days, weeks, and months, so please do not submit essays pegged to those. If the essay doesn’t mention the day but is still framed around “raising awareness,” it isn’t a fit.
Sound good? Submit your essay at [email protected], where you can also direct questions to editor Torie Bosch and contributing editor Kathy Burge.
We strive to respond to every submission, but sometimes the volume of submissions makes it difficult to get back to you immediately. Please wait a week before following up on a submission that is not time-sensitive, and please note in the subject line if a submission is truly time-sensitive. By “time-sensitive,” we mean that a piece is tied to a news story, a new study, etc., and will be out of date if it isn’t published within a couple of days. “People are talking about AI in medicine a lot right now” and “it’s cold and flu season” do not count as time-sensitive.