It is crucial that scientists are able to communicate their science. These tools and instructions were used by FLEET researchers to develop and distribute stories about new papers. We see this as a three step process:
- Step 1: Answer the prompts on this page to help you frame your article
- Step 2: Write the article
- Step 3: Distribute the article (below)
Step 3: Distribution
Okay, you’ve answered those prompts in Step 1, and you’ve written the article (Step 2), now it’s time to get it out there……
Ideally, you’d like to ‘host’ the article somewhere, so you can just send people the URL. If your lab has its own website, this is a great option. Alternatively, you can create a Google Word doc, allowing you control over image format, etc. But if all else fails, sending people a nicely formatted Word document is also acceptable.
Send a copy to the following:
Post on social media, most usefully probably being Linkedin, so that your peer network can read it. Tag all your co-authors and their orgs, to encourage as many people as possible to share it. Post on Friends of FLEET if you like, and we’ll all share it too.
The art of the pitch Use your ‘teaser’ paragraph (see hints and tricks) to pitch the article to each, with tweaks for some of the platforms (eg, if pitching to a materials platform you might emphasise materials aspects of the study). Then give them a URL pointing to the story, to make it as easy as possible for them to publish.
This pitch piece persuades someone that it’s worth reading. This is usually a version of your introduction section, but shorter. Note this is not a summary – don’t cram in all the important stuff in case the reader doesn’t click to read the article. The purpose of this paragraph is to persuade the reader to click to read. (Sometimes, after writing my pitch, I realise I have missed something really important and need to change my intro!)