Working with our Editors

Guidelines for Working with Bio-IT World’s Editors

Understanding Bio-IT World’s guidelines for working with editorial can relieve frustration and improve your effectiveness when inquiring about coverage opportunities.

Most editorial inquiries we receive fall into three categories: new product announcements; planned editorial calendar topics; and unplanned article ideas. A fourth opportunity is Bio-IT World’s Strategic Insights theme-based supplements for which we actively seek experts to contribute articles.

Email is usually the most effective way to communicate with editors, but please keep such exchanges brief. As a general rule, our editors are interested in how your product or service provides value to your clients. We prefer to have direct access to your clients for third-party validation and for use in case studies. We do not guarantee inclusion in articles. Following are inquiry guidelines for specific kinds of editorial. The contact information for relevant editors is listed after the guidelines.

1. New Product Information

Please email your new product announcements to our dedicated e-mailbox (newproducts@bio-itworld.com). Bio-IT World is constantly looking for new products, whether they represent incremental revisions or dramatic improvements, and we review submissions daily. However, when selecting products to present in our New Products section, we select those judged to be most significant. Contact John Russell with any questions.

2. Calendar Topics

Please review Bio-IT World’s published editorial calendar, posted on the Web site, for topics that are relevant to your company. Lead times for major articles are long, typically 3 months prior to the issue date. If you believe your company has relevant information or news for an upcoming article, contact executive editor John Russell for more information. He will forward your inquiry to the writer for consideration. We do not guarantee inclusion in a given article. Even companies contacted for a given article are sometimes omitted from the resulting article for editorial reasons or space constraints.

3. Article Idea Submissions (news, features, guest commentaries)

Commonly, we receive three types of article idea submissions: news tips; feature article ideas; and guest commentary suggestions. News tips should be directed to John Russell. Feature ideas are best submitted to Kevin Davies, editor-in-chief; or John Russell, executive editor.

We are seeking informative, accessible, op-ed style columns from guest contributors in any field of interest to the Bio-IT community (e.g., research, medical, finance, legal, consulting, etc.) The scope and content of these guest commentary essays should be discussed with Kevin Davies or John Russell. Vendor-supplied essays are considered, but not as a vehicle to promote a new product from that company.

4. Strategic Insights

Review our schedule of planned Strategic Insights for topics that your company has expertise in and send inquires to John Russell. As a general rule, we are seeking prominent experts to contribute focused 1000-word articles. We welcome suggestions, and typically jointly refine the topic, but bear in mind that we receive many worthy suggestions and cannot accommodate all requests.

5. Web Site

We don’t make hard distinctions between articles published in print and on our Web site. The general rules above apply to Web content. We do leverage the web for breaking news, and the news contact is the same. Because The Bio-IT World Web site has many varied offerings. Web editor Catherine Varmazis is the usually best first contact for Web-related inquires.

6. E-Newsletters

Bio-IT World also has eleven regular e-newsletters. Although the e-newsletters have different missions, and therefore varying content needs, their authors, noted below, welcome input and comment.

Bio-IT World Weekly Update - Breaking news, hot events and cool bio-IT products updated weekly – contact Catherine Varmazis
Best Practices - Profiles of innovative drug discovery, development, and clinical research (issued bi-monthly) – contact John Russell
Drug Discovery News - Companies, compounds, and technologies fueling the drug pipeline (issued monthly) – contact John Russell
eCliniqua - A closer look at the technology advancing clinical trials, (issued bi-monthly)
Inside IT - A close-up look at key networking technology and product trends as they apply to the life sciences, by Sal Salamone, contributing editor (issued monthly)