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Would you like to write for us?

  • Are you involved in astronomy and astrophysics research being conducted in India?
  • Do you wish to share your research results in simple words?
  • Do you want students and public in general to understand what you are working on?

If you answer Yes to any of the questions, then CosmicVarta is the platform for you! We are looking for writers actively. Here, you can write about your recent research in simple words and hence, communicate it to the rest of the world.

We usually accept articles based on recently accepted papers. Authors, who can review their own papers are most welcome to submit a popular verison of their papers, for wider audience and publicity. There is not fixed format as such, however we generally expect the articles to be short and concise which conveys the essence of the work, in a simplified language.

While we accept only English language submissions at the moment, based on the audience and situation we may include articles in native languages in the future.

Here are a few guidelines we expect authors to follow before submitting their articles:

  • The article should be a concise version of the recently accepted/published paper, intended for the general audience. We do not expect technical language. The articles will go through an editorial review by our team and the articles not meeting the criteria will generally need to be revised before being published here.
  • The submitted article must be about a paper accepted/published within the last 6 months only. However, we also accept review type papers, intended for the general audience, where this limit does not apply.
  • The submission here should not be published or being considered for publication elsewhere. The responsibility lies with the author to ensure that the article submitted here is original.
  • Figures are welcome in the article. However, the author has to ensure that the figures do not violate any copyright regulations and prior permisison is available in order to be used here. Note that figures available within arXiv often come with a Creative Commons (CC) license.
  • The authors will be contacted with a form where they may upload the article and related figures/other material. Do not forget to provide the link to the originally published/accepted paper.

Write for the purpose of visibility among the general masses and for the purpose of disseminating real research results of astronomy among young minds. If you would like to write for us, do fill up the form below and we will contact you.

Our editing guidelines:

Editing an article is similar to reviewing a research paper. However, while a referee needs to primarily focus on the science aspect of the submitted manuscript, a CosmicVarta editor may relax some aspects of the science, since the paper in consideration has already been peer-reviewed. That being said, there are a few guidelines which the editor must follow, and try to incorporate while working with the author. These are listed below:

  • Each submission will be allotted an editor, who will be coordinating with the author in framing the article in a format suitable for being published at CosmicVarta.
  • The overarching goal of the editor is to “make the article simple, but not simpler”. That is, the article must be accessible to the reader without compromising on the scientific soundness of the published work by the author.
  • The general flow of logic in any article is expected to be:
  • General details and an introduction to global science: This is the most important part of the whole article, since it needs to enrapture and fascinate the reader on the science being done.
  • A narrower perspective stating the science question, and emphasizing on the importance of the science question: This section starts with the detailing of the subject, which finally leads to the science question being asked in the paper. By the end of this section, the reader must be able to appreciate the science question asked, and also the science studied to answer the same.
  • Methods and techniques: Generally, this section gets technical in a paper. The editor must ensure the techniques are explained as simply as possible, minimizing technical jargons and details directly irrelevant to the results. While the author may add footnotes for caveats and details, such sub-plots should not lead the reader astray from the science question asked.
  • Results, conclusions and future work: The author would generally have a tendency to present all the results and their interpretation while drafting the article. Hence, it is the editor’s responsibility to ensure the main results are highlighted well, put into correct local and global context. Other results which would need details may be left out, or hinted at towards the end for the more technical reader.
  • The editor may suggest graphics in the form of images/gifs to better convey the science, and must ensure these are of good quality (in resolution and science), and are attributed to the correct source(s).
  • The editor must note that the author’s presentation style may be very different from the editor’s. Since the article is the author’s baby, the editor must not enforce their style of presentation on the author.

Do you want to contribute in any other way?.

If you are passionate about science communication, but want to contribute in any other way, we will consider your request for this option as well. We are seeking people who can help in maintaining our web page as well as other activities related to the handling of articles on this portal. Do get in touch if you are interested in contributing!!!

You may use the contact section or the email below for any queries/comments related to submission of articles or any other queries.