The BMJ Freelance Market Guide

Fees: Generally 500 to 1,000GBP ($660 to $1,320 as of August 2024) for 1,200-word feature articles, depending on the subject and complexity. The investigations desk can offer more because those articles require more work.

Submit to: For features, contact Mun-Keat Looi, international features editor, mlooi@bmj.com. For investigations, contact investigations@bmj.com.

Website: www.bmj.com 

Owner: British Medical Association (BMA). BMJ is editorially independent of the BMA. 

Readership demographics: Physicians and scientists, mostly in the U.K. and U.S., with a growing audience in India and China. 

Frequency of publication: Rolling online stories, which are where most non-U.K. feature stories appear. Weekly for the hard copy, which is read by a small subset of readers, mostly doctors in the U.K. 

What they look for in a pitch: From the guidelines: “We publish rigorous, accessible, and entertaining material of interest to doctors worldwide.” The tone is fact-based, authoritative and written in plain English. “We want great stories that keep the medical audience in mind and refer back to the evidence.” 

“To be honest, I’m on the lookout for stories that aren’t necessarily what the rest of the (particularly U.S. and international) media are already covering widely,” Looi said. He wants stories “about doctors, medicine, the health care system, and public health but where there is a clear U.S. narrative angle, yet that serves as a way to highlight a wider topic (e.g., abortion rights, pandemic adaptation, drug regulation).”

Here are two stories from U.S.-based freelancers that Looi said he is particularly proud of:

• From FDA to MHRA: are drug regulators for hire?
• Unborn in the USA: what happened and what’s next for Roe v Wade and abortion rights?

Looi said the pitch “doesn’t have to be too in depth.” He would prefer “a paragraph or two on what the story is and why its relevant and suitable for BMJ readers.” The writer can include possible interviewees and describe the research that will be tapped. A few links to clips is also a good idea for freelancers new to the publication.

Are editors open to pre-pitches? Yes, Looi is open to freelancers emailing him a short nut graph and asking if he wants to see more.

Most common mistake Looi sees with pitches: He will sometimes get a pitch with a topic but no story. “It’s all very well to say you would like to write about HIV, say, but I need to know what is new about what you would write and what the story/narrative is,” he said. 

Lead time for pitching: “Most of our features aren’t time-sensitive (though we do sometimes do very quick turnaround news features),” Looi said. “I generally prefer stories that could be ‘evergreen’ and of interest to people for some time, rather than being specific to the news of that week/month. Basically, get in touch as soon as you have an idea to sound me out.”  

Is there a better place to break into the pub? Looi said he can redirect pitches that seem more like news or an investigation than a standard feature.