Toolkits for Action

Last updated: May 26, 2025

Letters to the Editor (LTEs), when published, help broaden public awareness about a given topic. Regardless of whether they are printed, LTEs demonstrate community concern to newspaper editors, increasing the possibility of media coverage.  LTEs are thus a good strategy for advancing public understanding about the serious impact of U.S. government censorship of research, which is necessary in order to inspire more people to speak out against that censorship and put greater pressure on elected officials to intervene.

Below are guidelines, background information, sample letters, and additional resources to help you take this action!

Time-sensitive action

The McClintock Letters - early June

An action urging scientists, especially those conducting or whose work is enabled by federally funded research, to submit letters to the editor / op-eds about their story, the research they are currently doing, its importance, and its local impacts to local newspapers. Our goal is to simultaneously publish over 1,000 pieces across the country the week of June 16th – Nobel Prize-awarded geneticist Barbara McClintock’s birthday. 

These pieces will be accompanied by reporting in national media and an open letter from scientists regarding the inherently political nature of our position and what is at stake. Thus, the scope of these pieces should be restricted to your research as a next-generation scientist and its broader impacts, how research in your field generally impacts the local community, and how the local community played a role in shaping you as a scientist. Learn more!

General guidance

1. Find the venue: Identify the newspapers in your community and get the details on their requirements.

2. Make it local: Your letter should respond to a recent article or event impacting your community; local connections to national issues must be clearly established.

3. Foreground the major points: make your most important points in the first paragraph, knowing that letters may be edited and that readers may be skimming.

4. Focus on impact: use your personal experiences and/or local statistics to illustrate the local significance.

5. Keep it short: Letters should be about 150-300 words, as they are often edited for space or clarity; being concise gives you more control over your message.

6. Identify yourself: News outlets will not print anonymous letters, so use your name, how you are connected to the community (resident, teacher, city employee, etc.), and any relevant professional affiliation.

Resources to support letter writing 

The background information below may help you in conveying your personal perspective.

Public benefits of federally supported research

US federally supported research drives basic science and knowledge production in the U.S.  That research plays a critical role in our economy, health, and well-being, from identifying new treatments for life-altering conditions like Parkinsons, to helping farmers prevent crop diseases, to further analyzing and understanding the history of Jim Crow segregation, and a much, much longer list worth exploring. Everyone benefits from this shared foundational knowledge, much of which is generated with and dependent on federal support.  But that knowledge is only reliably produced when scholars are free to explore, collaborate, share, and discuss their work – nationally and internationally.

U.S. government censorship acts

The Trump Administration has issued multiple directives across federal agencies which censor or threaten to restrict research across a wide variety of areas.  Below are examples of restricted terms with links to full lists; these can be used to support the specific concerns raised in an LTE:

• “Disability” is one of dozens of words that will trigger a review of research at the National Science Foundation.  

• The term “LGBT” is part of a long list of forbidden terms at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 

• “Rural water” is among the phrases censored by the Department of Agriculture.

Impacts of censorship

Researchers have provided us with these testimonials describing how censorship of their work creates serious harm. Testimonials are also available from other initiatives working to #DefendResearch, such as Why I Stand Up for Science and The Impact Map state dashboards.

Individuals are unnecessarily harmed by this research suppression, and our nation as a whole is put at risk.  Our longstanding global competitiveness is in jeopardy, and thus our economy.  Our reputation is severely tarnished, which will make it difficult for U.S. researchers to work with their international peers.  And, our ability to recruit, educate, and train a new generation of scholars is uncertain.

Sample letters

Effective LTEs reflect a personal perspective, so your own thoughts and words are essential.  The sample below (with more to come!) is intended as a prompt to help you craft your story. 

Sample letter 1

Dear [Newspaper] editor,

I read with alarm about the outbreak of Hepatitis A in L.A. County (“Hepatitis A outbreak declared in L.A. County. ‘We really have to get ahead of this’”).  How will we be able to prevent the spread of Hepatitis A--or any infectious disease--when the word “vaccines” is among the list of banned terms by the federal government? The restrictions the Trump Administration is placing on our country’s scientists is making us all unsafe--just look at the outbreak of measles across over 10 states, a disease that until this year was completely controlled! 

Our senators and representatives need to stand up for the people who elected them to office and challenge the executive orders censoring and defunding the research that helps make our communities healthy and strong.  Banning the term “bird flu” (another censored term) doesn’t make bird flu go away, it just prevents researchers from finding ways to protect us. We don’t have time to wait--another national health crisis is just around the corner!

Sincerely,

[Your name, local affiliation]

Additional resources

We hope that this LTE toolkit, combined with the requirements of the specific newspaper your LTE will be submitted to, will provide everything you need to write and send in your letter, but below are a few additional guides that may be helpful: 

• Union of Concerned Scientists Letters to the Editor video  and toolkit

• McKlintock Letters Initiative FAQ, from the Cornell Advancing Science and Policy

• Community Tool Box: Chapter 33, Section 2. “Writing Letters to the Editor,” from the University of Kansas

• Advocacy and Communication Solutions Media Guide (see p. 6 for guidance and p. 7 for a sample letter)