Article Submission Guidelines Life Science Leader

Life Science Leader (LSL) is designed for executives in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and medical device industries. Our articles are intended to showcase business best practices and learnings while not presenting the content in an overly technical/scientific way. Life Science Leader does not use an editorial calendar; we choose our articles based on current and relevant topics our audience will find valuable as well as our interactions with key industry stakeholders.

Life Science Leader accepts bylined/contributed articles, but only a limited amount run in each issue. You first need to send Editorial Director Dan Schell (dan.schell@lifescienceleader.com) a brief abstract of the topic you are suggesting.

Also, before considering writing an article for LSL, please read through all of the following.

General Guidelines For Submitting An Article To LSL

  1. The content must be original. If the article has been published on another site or in print or is slated to be published elsewhere, it will not be considered.
  2. We are a B2B magazine, so we do not accept overly technical/scientific topics or articles.
  3. The article cannot be promotional either directly or indirectly (e.g., leading the reader to only one conclusion, which happens to be the solution your company offers).
  4. The author of an article cannot have a PR-, marketing-, or business development-related title.
  5. Ideally, we want an end user (i.e., pharma or bio manufacturer, not a CMO, CRO, vendor, etc.) to participate in/be interviewed for a submitted article. The exception is an Industry Leader article (see “Word Count” below).
  6. We do not print/provide footnotes, references, etc. If you cite a metric that requires the source, include it within the sentence (e.g., “According to XYZ research firm, …”) or in a parenthetical after the metric (e.g., “Typically, 20 percent of pharmaceutical companies (XYZ Research report) …”).  
  7. All contributed articles run as needed and on a first-come-first-serve basis (See “Deadlines” below). We do not guarantee that any contributed article will run in our magazine or on our website until we receive it and determine if:
    1. We have space to run the article in an upcoming issue.
    2. It meets our editorial standards.
  • We may choose to run an article solely on our website rather than in our magazine. This decision is made based on the article’s content/subject and the amount of contributed content already approved and submitted by the time the final draft of the article is received. For example, if we already have enough contributed content for the next two or three issues, we may choose to run any new articles we receive online only so they aren’t so out of date.
  1. We don’t provide free PDFs of our articles. If you want any type of electronic or print reprint you need to go through our reprint provider at the following:  

The YGS Group

Ana Stover, Content Marketing Specialist

anastasia.stover@theygsgroup.com

p: 717.430.2268 | f: 888.608.0288

www.theYGSgroup.com

  • We can, at your request, mail you a few copies of the issue in which your article appears. Email Dan Schell (dan.schell@lifescienceleader.com) your address and the request.
  • Content on our site is gated; a visitor has to sign in (for free) to view the content.

Audience Considerations

  • Life Science Leader readers are professionals throughout the life sciences, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and medical device industries. Make sure your article topic is valuable to this audience. (e.g., How can they improve their business processes? Will regulatory changes impact their business? What industry news or trends affect them?)
  • Your article should include actionable information. Ideally, your article should force readers to take action, rethink a current position, or dive deeper into a topic.
  • Articles should not be a news recap of a topic; they should provide unique insights and assessments.
  • Our readers are busy people. You need to grab their attention by breaking your article into shorter, digestible paragraphs. Also, include subheadings within the article to draw attention and break-up the content.
  • Include an engaging headline. It’s the first thing readers see, and it has to be compelling and drive readers to learn more.

Word Count

  • Typically, we limit the word count of contributed articles to 1,200-1,300 words. This equates to two pages in our magazine.
  • Industry Leader articles are written by a top executive (no PR, marketing, or biz dev titles are allowed) and discuss a common trend that impacts our audience. These are single–page articles with a word count between 650-700 words.

Deadlines:

  • We have a rolling submission schedule and do not use a traditional editorial calendar, so we can work with authors to set mutually agreeable submission deadlines.
  • All contributed articles run as needed and on a first-come-first-serve basis. We usually require final versions of contributed content at least 5 weeks prior to the beginning of the month for the upcoming issue. Therefore, the sooner you send in your final draft, the sooner it will be considered for an upcoming issue.  

Editing/Proofing/Approvals

  • Prior to publishing, we reserve the right to edit any submission in an effort to meet length requirements, improve readability, meet our style, and/or optimize web traffic. Unless we have questions about the content, we will not send you a list of our edits or seek your approval for most edits. If we plan to significantly rewrite a headline/section, then we will contact you and have you approve the changes within 48 hours. Unless we hear back from you during that time period, we will run the article as is.
  • We also do not allow prepublication proofing of layout.

Design Elements/Graphs/Charts/Photos

  • At the very least, we usually will ask for a high-resolution (300 dpi) headshot of the author(s). We don’t guarantee any submitted graphic elements will run with an article, and we will revise/redesign the look of any submitted graphics that we do run to fit our needs and style.
  • The author is responsible for securing copyright permission to use any images that are not their (or their firm's) own work. Company logos or images bearing company logos will not be accepted. Images ideally should be submitted in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format, and may be embedded in Word docs.

Reprints

See number 8 above.

File Format
Articles should be submitted in editable Microsoft Word format, with the language set to American English.

Style Guidelines/Tips

  • We don’t print long disclaimers (e.g., those often found with articles written by lawyers or investment firms) or any similar “legalese” with contributed articles.  
  • We do not print copyright, trademark, or any similar symbols.
  • Bylines do not include a person’s title and company; that information is included in their short bio at the end.
  • Author bios should be short and focus only on the author’s title, company name, and experience. We will edit bios that are excessive and include promotional wording. Bios should not include a person’s email or website.
  • In-text subheads are required and should be descriptive of the content in a section. Subheads such as “introduction” and “conclusion” are not appropriate.
  • Three is the maximum amount of authors we will attribute to a piece of contributed content.
  • Without purchasing the rights (see number 8 above) to an article that runs in our magazine, you cannot reprint an article in its entirety on any other website/page/social media, including your own. Your best option is to link back to the article on www.LifeScienceLeader.com. (We can provide you with an LSL logo to do this.)
  • Acronyms and abbreviations should be defined upon first reference and within tables and figures.