July 4, 2026
Science for the People seeks proposals for articles, art, and other content for the upcoming issue, “Science on the Ground” (Volume 28, no. 1).
The seeds of Science for the People’s revitalization were planted in 2014, when the 1970s and 1980s generation of radical scientists met to discuss how their efforts to organize an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist science movement could offer lessons for the present. We have been taking on that effort for almost a decade, and this remains a defining question. Throughout Science for the People’s revitalization, we have focused on vital topics that connect to this core mission: biological determinism, Palestine, extractivism, militarism, agroecology, and the political economy of science. Yet much of the work of radical science today is cross-cutting, interwoven, intersectional, and not easily contained within narrowly-defined topics. With that in mind, our next issue will have a broader focus, with a general theme of “science on the ground,” elucidating the present struggles, envisioning the fights ahead, and investigating how the lessons of past movements can inform the work we do today. This issue comes at a time when questions about the politics of science are increasingly central to so many of the battles fought by communities on the ground, from widespread public organizing against data centres, to climate justice campaigns, to tech and manufacturing workers mobilizing against the military applications of their work.
Throughout the world, reactionary agendas are undermining and weaponizing critical scientific infrastructure. These forces are not only dismantling research institutions and public access, but also rolling back hard-fought gains by radical science movements (e.g., reproductive health, gender-affirming care, popular epidemiology, anti-essentialist racial justice, pollution monitoring in fenceline communities, post-conviction forensic audits). The illusion of scientific impartiality and insecurity has enabled the ruling-class owners of knowledge to develop advanced sciences of war and destruction. Technological solutions like geoengineering and carbon capture and storage are weaponized by reactionary forces to fuel the dismantling of climate science and accelerate extractivism and petro-capitalism. Collective and organized responses from scientists working alongside people’s movements are critical in the fight against capital’s control over science, society, and ideological hegemony.
We are looking for stories grounded in case studies, historical analysis, participatory action research, and experience organizing in radical science. We seek contributions that address science-related struggles in areas such as anti-imperialism, anti-militarism, Indigenous resistance, climate justice, racial justice, reproductive justice, disability justice, animal rights, food sovereignty, data sovereignty, and right-to-repair. The issue aims to showcase a diverse representation of voices and experiences from communities around the world, including descriptions and analyses of struggles with both positive and negative outcomes. Given the timely nature of this theme, we strongly encourage submissions that speak to recent or ongoing campaigns and their challenges. We are especially interested in proposals that address intersectionality, the complexity of experiences, and the need for scientists to work across race, gender, class, caste, and national lines when organizing.
Submission Guidelines:
Submit proposals here. Enviar propuesta aquí.
Deadline for submissions: July 31, 2026
- We ask prospective authors to provide a detailed outline.
- We accept proposals for features, opinions, book and media reviews, artwork and more. You can read more about the kinds of articles we publish and our rates here.
- Please keep outlines under one page and image uploads to 20 Mb total.
- Science for the People articles are geared toward non-specialists, and are written in a journalistic format and from a radical perspective. We consider submissions from scientists across the STEM fields, scholars working in science and technology studies, as well as non-scientists and non-specialists. We especially encourage submissions from activists and those organizing in the sciences, and those working in the humanities and arts at their intersection of science and technology. We particularly welcome women, people of color, non-binary individuals, and others traditionally underrepresented in these fields to send submissions to Science for the People.