BioTreks is a high school synthetic biology journal that’s designed to give students hands-on experience with scientific writing and peer review. We do this by encouraging participants to submit and comment on each other’s manuscripts during an annual online event. The students use this feedback to improve their papers, which are eventual published in the journal. Career scientists play a central role in this process by setting the tone for constructive reviews and judging teams on their writing and participation.
Judging takes place online and generally on your own time. This year, judges will have from 2 May to 12 June to review up to three student papers each. During this time, the judges will join other students, mentors, and visitors in commenting on the papers and recommending revisions. They’ll also evaluate the students on their writing and peer review skills so that teams can be recognized for outstanding performance on different aspects of scientific publishing.
We’re looking for career educators and scientists to make this year’s BioTreks conference a rewarding experience for our young authors. If you would like to help, please submit your name and email address along with a very brief descriptions of your qualifications for guiding students through this process.
We’ll be assigning judges to papers on 18 April so please submit your application now. Judging BioTreks manuscripts truly is a fun and rewarding experience!