Admission Requirements
Science Journalism is a 13-week course, that is part of the Science Communication and Society specialisation. The Dutch version of this course, 'Wetenschapsjournalistiek', is available for native Dutch students.
The course is open to MSc students from the Faculty of Science and to MSc students in the Biomedical Sciences programme of LUMC. Other students who are interested in following this course should contact their own study advisor for permission.
NOTE: There is a limited number of spots available for students who want to follow this course as an elective course and who are not following the SCS specialisation. Make sure to register in time to secure a spot in the course.
Please apply for this course through this registration form.
Description
In this course, you will learn how to write a good story about science, and how to pick the most suitable genre of journalistic writing for a particular (science) story. You will write and revise various types of articles, conduct interviews, and discuss and critically reflect upon popular scientific articles from various (news) outlets. The overall aim of the course is to learn how to write engaging and accessible articles about complex scientific topics. The emphasis is on text, but we will dedicate some attention to other media as well.
Course Objectives
After completion of Science Journalism, students are able to:
Write various science journalism texts: news items, features, and interviews
Determine what is newsworthy and assess how science news is presented in news articles
Provide peers with useful and constructive feedback
Organize, prepare and conduct an interview about a scientific topic
Design an attractive lay-out and visuals
Present themselves and their skills in a competitive (online) market
Revise their own text by adequately incorporating feedback
Timetable
Preliminary schedule: Classes will take place on Tuesday afternoon 13:15 – 16:00h from September 2 – November 25, 2025, with an exception of October 21, 2025 (class-free week). Room schedule will follow. Various lectures will also have journalists as invited guest speakers.
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of Instruction
Lectures, in-class activities, self-study
Assessment Method
Students' performance will be assessed through written assignments. The assignments will be evaluated according to rubrics that will be discussed in class and which can be found on Brightspace. The final grade for this course will be the average of all grades obtained for the assignments. This average may be adjusted positively or negatively depending on your adherence to deadlines and on the quality of your feedback on other students’ texts.
Reading List
TBA
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Please also apply for this course through this registration form.
Contact
For any information regarding this course or the SCS specialisation in general you can contact our department through: infoscs@biology.leidenuniv.nl.
Remarks
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.