Data for Breakfast is written by the people who do the work: data scientists, analysts, engineers, and researchers at Automattic. If that’s you, we’d love to see your writing. Bring the idea and a draft; we’ll handle the polish.

What makes a good post

A good post tells a story from real work: a problem you hit, a method you tried, a result that surprised you. It has a point a reader could repeat in one sentence. And it sounds like a person wrote it. Use “I” and “we.” Say what you expected and what actually happened.

Negative results and lessons learned are welcome. “This didn’t work the way we thought it would” is often the most useful post you can write.

We don’t publish press releases or sales pitches. There are better homes for those. We do consider guest posts but we do not offer renumeration at this time.

Topics we cover

• Data engineering
• Data science and machine learning
• Data visualization
• Network science
• Search and information retrieval
• Distributed work, from a data perspective

AI doesn’t get its own category; lately it runs through almost everything we publish. And if your idea doesn’t fit neatly into one of the topics above, pitch it anyway. The list describes what we’ve published, not the limits of what we will.

House style, the short version

Like the rest of Automattic, we follow the Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam‑Webster for spelling. You don’t need to memorize either one. The highlights:

• Show the data. A couple of clear, legible charts beat a wall of numbers. Start your y‑axis at zero, and write alt text for every image.
• Put code in code blocks, with enough context that a reader could run it.
• Link generously and cite your sources.
• Publish under your full name. Data work rarely gets a public byline, so take the credit when you can.
• Grammar checks
  • American spelling: analyze, color, modeling.
  • Serial commas: bacon, eggs, and toast.
  • Title case for post titles, sentence case for headings.
  • Spell out numbers zero through nine; use numerals from 10 up.

If comma placement keeps you up at night, stop worrying. An editor will fix it.

We’ll handle the polish

Send us a draft, even a rough one. If accepted, our editorial team will give feedback on structure and flow, copyedit for clarity and house style, help with titles, clarify image requirements, add tags, and share your post on our social channels once it’s live. You keep your voice. We sweep up the typos.

How to start

If you work at Automattic, bring a pitch or a draft to the editorial team; you know where to find us. If you don’t work here yet and this sounds like your kind of breakfast, come work with us.

For more on why writing about your work is worth the effort, we like “Writing Is Thinking” by Sally Kerrigan. This page borrows its spirit from A List Apart’s “Write for Us.”