Skeptically Thinking is a newsletter dedicated to skepticism, critical thinking and science. It is intended to be a well reasoned scientific response to uncritical belief in pseudoscience and the supernatural. While supernatural and magical claims should not be rejected a priori, all claims must be examined carefully and validated only when there is strong evidence for the claim. This newsletter is intended for readers of diverse backgrounds. This includes scientists and non-scientists alike.

The following newsletter submissions will be accepted:

Articles on pseudoscientific claims, skepticism and critical thinking.
Reviews of books, web sites, magazine and newspaper articles.
News items
Letters to the editor
Follow up to previous articles

Guidelines for each submission type are as follows:

Articles

Articles should be no more than 3500 words long. Articles should be concise, interesting and well written. Article topics can range from evaluating specific pseudoscientific claims to more general essays on critical thinking and skepticism. They should reflect a skeptical and scientific point of view. They should help readers make sense of paranormal claims around North Florida.

When evaluating a pseudoscientific claim, do not get personal. Any attack on the person who is making the claim will be unacceptable. Simply state the claim and evaluate the evidence for and against the claim. Use restraint in your language and avoid sensationalism. Let the facts speak for themselves.

You can evaluate only the portions of the claim on which you have expertise. You do not need to do a comprehensive analysis of the entire claim for the article to be accepted.

Avoid unnecessarily technical language. Remember that this newsletter is written for scientist and non-scientists alike.

The article should include a title and list of the author(s). References should be cited according to the The Chicago Manual of Style.

Reviews of books, web sites, magazine and newspaper articles

Reviews should be no more than 1500 words long. For books, you should provide the author, title, publisher, year that it was published, ISBN number and price. For magazine, you should provide the author, title, magazine name, issue information (i.e volume 1 number 1 June 2003) and page numbers within the magazine. For newspaper articles, you should provide the author, title, newspaper name, publication date, page numbers within the newspaper. For web sites, provide the full web address (i.e. http://www.microsoft.com).

News items

News items should be no more than 200 words. You should include the source of the news item. The news source must be reliable, i.e. Associated Press or newspaper article.

Letters to the editor

The subject of the letter should be in response to matters included in previous issues of Skeptically Thinking. Letters should be no longer than 200 words. Like newsletter articles, the letters should not get personal. Instead, state your opinion respectfully.

Follow up to previous articles

At times, people whose claims have been subjects of previous articles will be given an opportunity to respond to the article. The author of the article will also be provided an final opportunity to respond to the follow up article. The follow-ups should no longer than 2500 words.

Submission details

All submissions should be submitted on diskettes or e-mail (Diskettes will not be returned unless requested). I will accept the following formats: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Wordperfect 5 or 6, Wordstar and Microsoft Works. Basically, any format that can be opened with Microsoft Word 2002 and Microsoft Publisher 2002 is acceptable. I will also accept HTML documents. Pictures included in the articles should be named, i.e. Figure 1 and referred to in the article by that name. Also, include an e-mail address or mailing address with your submission.

Include a note about yourself and your background. If you are writing an article or book review, you should tell me what qualifications you possess to write the article or book review. For example, if you are writing about alternative medicine, you should describe what medical background you have.

For all submissions to this newsletter, you must fill out, sign and send a copyright waiver form along with the diskette or e-mail. In this waiver, you will select one of three options that resolves the copyright issues involved in printing your submission. The address to send the waiver is:

Skeptically Thinking
6951 Huntington Woods Circle East
Jacksonville, Florida 32244

If submission requires modification, I will contact you to have you resubmit it. I will not modify any submissions myself. When your submission is approved for publication, the submissions will be your words and your words only.

Sorry. No monetary compensation is available for article submission. Your reward will be having your words available to anyone with access to the Internet.