You are being invited to take part in a research project investigating what people in Scotland think and feel about climate change, especially the difficult emotions or mental health and wellbeing impacts that may be caused by climate change.

Before you decide whether to take part, it is important that you understand why the research is being carried out and what taking part will involve. Please take time to read this participant information sheet carefully so you can decide whether you want to take part.

When you upload your story, you will be asked to grant your consent to participating in the project, which confirms that you have read and understood the participant information sheet. If anything isn’t clear or you would like more information, please get in touch with the researcher at r.bull.1@research.gla.ac.uk.

When you submit your story, you will also be invited to express interest in joining a series of online workshops on creative writing and climate change, which will take place between April and June 2026. This will involve attending a series of six workshops, plus a short interview before and after participating. You do not have to join these workshops to submit a story online.

This part of the research invites you to write a story about climate change:

• Story length: Stories can be up to 1,000 words long, with a 10% leeway (i.e. up to 1,100 words maximum).
• Residency: You must currently live in Scotland to submit a story. This includes students who live in Scotland during term-time, as well as anyone living in Scotland temporarily.
• Age: In order to submit a story, you must be aged 18 or older.
• Genre: Stories can be in any genre, fiction or nonfiction. This means your story can focus on your own experiences, or be about a character you’ve made up.
• Format: Stories can be uploaded as either a .doc or .pdf document
• Originality: Stories should be your own, original work.
• Getting started: Some prompts are provided here, which you may find helpful to look at if you’re not sure where to start, but you don’t have to use these – if there’s another story you want to tell, write whatever feels important to you.
• Deadline: The deadline for submissions is 28 February 2026.

You can spend as much or as little time on writing your story as you want to. There’s also the option to provide some covering explanatory notes where you can describe your experience of writing your story. You do not have to provide this information to submit your story.

If your story is nonfiction and includes personal details. please consider the following:

• Avoid including full names, addresses, or other identifying information.
• If you mention other people, make sure you have their consent or anonymise them appropriately.
• Stories may be shared publicly, so think carefully about what you’re comfortable disclosing.

By contributing your story to this project, you will be helping research into climate emotions and mental health and wellbeing in Scotland, which may in turn change how organisations understand and offer support around these issues.

The researcher will use the findings from this research to address the research questions asked by the project (detailed on the about page), writing up the results of this study into a PhD thesis. The results may also be published in academic articles, books, reports, audio recordings and presentations, and on this website. Data from this project may be used in teaching.

It is also intended that these findings will be communicated to environmental and other interested organisations, which may include an anthology, audio, podcast, exhibitions, or public reports for relevant organisations.

Quotations and excerpts from your stories (and covering explanatory notes) may be used in these outputs; some of these outputs may include full stories. These will all be kept anonymous unless there is a specific request otherwise.

Writing about climate change can bring its own challenges. If you find that you need extra support managing your feelings around climate change, the following organisations and resources offer help:

The Climate Psychology Alliance offer information on where you can seek support.

There is also a national helpline in Scotland for when people need help with overwhelming feelings.