6 tasks, each one witnessed by the sources that watched the job — and behind every one, a prompt you can use tonight.
You’ll split time between reading papers and writing. Mornings often mean scanning journals, policy briefs, and social media for stories that link science to political debates. Expect 1–2 hours vetting sources and 2–3 hours drafting or editing articles, policy notes, or internal memos.
Afternoons usually include meetings: editing meetings about how to phrase political points, responding to 1–5 comments from readers or professionals, and running small analyses (e.g., search queries or Supabase lookups) to track public reaction.
You’ll likely use a CMS built with React and TypeScript for editing and publishing. That’s where you write, tag political topics, and implement editorial rules. Developers may add components to enforce disclaimers or source checks.
For data and feedback tracking you’ll query Supabase (a hosted Postgres + auth) to store comment threads, social listening results, and editorial policy versions. Expect to run simple SQL queries and review dashboards rather than build full databases.
Use AI to summarize papers, suggest plain-language edits, or draft social-media posts, but always check facts and citations against the original paper and reliable sources. Treat AI outputs as a first draft — verify every claim, number, and quoted line before publishing.
Avoid prompting AI to invent sources or translate private feedback. Keep sensitive data out of model prompts; instead run verifications in your Supabase-backed records and flag possible legal or ethical issues with your editor.
Salaries vary a lot by country and employer. Small NGOs and university projects often pay entry-level roles roughly $30k–$50k USD per year; specialist roles at think tanks or major media can range $60k–$100k. Freelance or consultancy pay is usually per piece or per hour.
Check the job posting for exact numbers and whether benefits (health, parental leave, pension) or research travel budgets are included. Use local salary sites or the employer’s HR for precise figures.
Start by reading mainstream science coverage plus policy sites—Nature’s policy section, Science, local government policy pages—and practice writing short explainers. Learn basic React and TypeScript tutorials and simple SQL so you can understand the tools your team uses.
Volunteer for a school paper or local NGO to write about science policy, manage a small website, or collect social-media feedback. Build a small Supabase project to store comments and practice writing queries to analyze them.
Science journalists focus on clear, publishable stories for a broad audience and usually avoid internal policy-setting. Policy analysts concentrate on detailed policy recommendations and stakeholder lobbying. A Science and Society Researcher sits between: you research how science and politics interact, write publicly, and help choose editorial policies on political topics.
You’ll do both public-facing writing like a journalist and internal policy work like an analyst — plus manage feedback and social listening (using React-based CMS and Supabase for data) rather than only reporting or only advising.
Clear, precise editing for political sensitivity. You must phrase findings so they’re accurate but don’t expose the outlet to legal or ethical risk; that means knowing how to word caveats, sourcing lines, and corrections.
Technically, basic SQL for Supabase, and comfort with React/TypeScript interfaces help you work with developers to implement editorial rules. Both editing nuance and simple technical fluency are often more important than deep coding or perfect legal knowledge.