Carpenter grew up in La Crescent, Minnesota. She is married, with two daughters, and lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a B.A. in psychology in 1995.[1] She earned an M.S. in 1997, and Ph.D. in 2000, both in social psychology at Yale University.[2] Her dissertation, Implicit gender attitudes, was directed by Mahzarin R. Banaji.[3]
Carpenter's career as a freelance science journalist began in 2002. From 2012 to 2014, she was a senior editor and then a features editor at Discover Magazine in Waukesha, Wisconsin.[7][8] Since 2014 Carpenter has also worked as a freelance editor for several publications, including bioGraphic,[9] and Science News for Students.[10]
The Open Notebook
When it comes to freelance writing, some things are curiously taboo. Many of the most important aspects of freelancing, like pay rates and contract negotiation, are often shrouded in secrecy. Luckily there’s The Open Notebook, which was founded to shed light on these important topics.
In 2010 Carpenter co-founded The Open Notebook (TON), a science journalism non-profit organization, magazine and publisher, with Jeanne Erdmann, a health science journalist.[11] Carpenter is president and editor-in-chief; Erdmann is vice president, secretary, and editor-at-large. Gary Price of Library Journal said The Open Notebook "provides unique tools and resources to help science journalists at all experience levels hone their craft".[12]
National Association of Science Writers
Carpenter was vice president of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), 2016–2018,[13] and was elected to a two-year term as president in 2018.[14] NASW is "...a community of journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, students and people who write and produce material intended to inform the public about science, health, engineering, and technology".[15]
Publications
Books
In 2007, Carpenter and Karen Huffman wrote the textbook, Visualizing Psychology. A second edition was published 2010, and Wiley published the third edition in 2012.[16]
In 2020, TON published The Craft of Science Writing: Selections from The Open Notebook, edited by Carpenter.[4] Jonathan Wai wrote in Psychology Today, "...a new book edited by distinguished science writer Siri Carpenter seeks to illuminate The Craft of Science Writing by collecting numerous perspectives from science writers themselves about how to improve their own craft of science writing."[17]
Carpenter, Siri (November 3, 2011). "Is Your Parent Over-Medicated?". Prevention. Archived from the original on September 3, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
Carpenter, Siri (March 13, 2018). "How to Do a Close Read". The Open Notebook. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
^ ab"Writers and Editors - Science and medical writing". writersandeditors.com. June 17, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2020. The setting: The newsroom of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. A young Siri Carpenter, a bright-eyed graduate student trying her hands at journalism as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, gets paired with editor A.J.Hostetler. ...Carpenter, Siri. The Craft of Science Writing: Selections from The Open Notebook.
^Wood, Clark (August 26, 1999). "Cleanliness is not necessarily key to healthiness". The Bangor Daily News. p. 22. Retrieved September 17, 2020. Indeed if a recent article by Siri Carpenter in Science News is any indication the character Pigpen in the popular Charlie Brown cartoon strip may be the epitome of childhood good health.
^Carpenter, Siri (Fall 2002). "Becoming a Science Writer". Psychological Science Agenda. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
^Johnson, George (February 27, 2014). "Farewell to Discover". Discover Magazine. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
^"Revisit 2017's most important stories". Science News for Students. December 22, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2020. Even though we're often not aware of these implicit biases, they can lead us to treat other people unfairly," says SNS contributing editor Siri Carpenter.
