Thank you for choosing to contribute a blog post to The Social Metwork! We welcome posts on all aspects of being a PhD student in Reading Meteorology, including:

• Seminar summaries: an opportunity for PhD
  students to blog about a recent seminar/talk they have given.
• Details of published work: a summary of
  published work by PhD students in the department.
• Experiences of a PhD student: a chance for PhD
  students to describe exactly what it’s like to study for a PhD (including
  conferences, summer schools, using computer programming languages…).
• Advice for other PhD students: a place to blog
  on the solutions to common PhD issues.

We aim to publish blogs every Friday.

Editors: Adam Gainford, Juan Garcia-Valencia, Robby Marks

Length

There is no specific guideline on length, but a shorter, more succinct post will likely be better read. Excessively lengthy submissions may be initially rejected for reduction.

References

We do not specify a referencing system, so long as it is consistent throughout the post. AMS style is preferred. Please hyperlink the DOI if possible to increase the likelihood of readers viewing the citation.

It is also not necessary to have a formal reference list at the end of your post – hyperlinking the references in the main text is fine.

Style

Blogs should be formal and contain no content that would not be suitable for the wider representation of the Department of Meteorology or the University of Reading, although we disclaim that content is representative of the author’s views. However, blogs should also be entertaining and engaging.

All acronyms must be defined, even if they are widely known.

Submission process

Pre-submission

Before writing for Social Metwork, please contact the Editor to arrange a mutually convenient week for your post.

You will need a WordPress account (only the username is needed). The Editor will invite you as a Contributor to The Social Metwork, so that all your contributions are linked to your name. Please change your display name in your account settings to your full name.

All contributors must read and sign the Memorandum of Understanding before publication can go ahead. This document is distributed to all incoming PhD students at the start of their first year. Contact the Editor if this is not something you have done.

Initial submission

Once you have been scheduled for a post, please send a copy of your blog as a .docx (Word, preferred) or PDF (if necessary) document including in-line figures and captions by the end of Wednesday of the week your blog is scheduled.

Review

Your blog post will be reviewed by the Editor and one other reviewer. Most reviews are very minor (usually comprising spelling or phrasing changes). Feedback will be given as comments in the document.

Final submission

Once you have addressed the comments (any rebuttals should be addressed to the Editor in the final submission stage), please send your final submission by Friday morning, comprising:

• A “clean” Word document with all changes
  accepted
  • Figures should be removed from the document, but
    all captions placed where the figures are desired in-line
• Figure files – labelled as “fig_1.jpg”, for
  example

Publication

The Editor will upload and publish the blog, usually on Friday afternoon. An email summary and link will be sent out to the met-phd mailing list, and this summary will appear in the weekly departmental calendar. The blog post will also be shared via The Social Metwork’s Twitter account.

Corrections

Please contact the Editor immediately should you notice any errata in your published blog, either from yourself or in the formatting process.