Press

• Your profile page on uu.se is your shop window. Add keywords and write a brief description of your research for a popular audience. Include links to DiVA to show your latest publications. Journalists like phone numbers, preferably mobile numbers, so they can easily call you up or send you a text message. You can change your profile page by logging in to the Staff Gateway. Click on your name in the top right corner, select “My profile page”, “Edit profile page”.
• Tell us about your expertise. Let us know your subject areas or topical issues on which you have something to say.
• Send us a tip! We are grateful for information about new or ongoing projects that may be of interest to a wider audience.
• You can always contact journalists directly. If you already have a contact, new research-related tips are often appreciated.
  

Since a lot of research is produced at Uppsala University, we need to be selective. In making our selection, we consider both scholarly weight and newsworthiness. As a rule, we only send press releases in connection with scholarly publications, not new projects or other similar news. If you would like to request publicity for such projects, please contact nyhetstips@uu.se.

A press release may be based on:

• New research results published in a scholarly journal
• A doctoral thesis
• Really major news about the University

All requests for press releases are considered, but each news item is assessed for a possible press release based on certain criteria, including the following:

• The researcher must be active at Uppsala University
• The news must be of general interest and relevant to a relatively wide audience
• Research results must have undergone peer review and been accepted for publication in a scholarly journal
• Scholarly quality, determined mainly by the impact factor of the journal
• The topic is particularly important to the University
• Time required and Press Office workload

To increase the chances of us having time to help you, please contact the Press Office at least two weeks before the planned publication date. Contact: press@uu.se

Once you have contacted us and told us about your new publication, we will usually ask you to send us a draft. It’s helpful to use quotes in your text, commenting on the results yourself. Try to come up with a suitable headline as well. Remember that a press release is aimed at journalists, so keep the text as simple as possible.

The draft should be written as a coherent text and should answer the questions below:

1. What have you found out?
2. What have you done?
3. What is new about your study?
4. Why is this interesting?
5. Who have you worked with?
6. What method have you used?
7. What further research is needed? New questions you want to examine?
8. What might this lead to in the future?

Once we have agreed to send out a press release, we need more information.

1. The name of at least one person to contact should be given, with an email address and telephone number, preferably a mobile phone number.
2. Images make press releases more attractive. Photos are of more use to journalists than graphs and figures. We need images in 16:9 landscape format. See more information on images below.
3. Correct citation of the scholarly article, with DOI number and link. The journal usually sends this out a while in advance, so please send it to us as soon as you receive it.
4. Names of any funders you wish to mention.
5. For press releases related to medicine and life sciences, we provide keywords for method and subject to help science journalists get a quick overview. We use the same keywords as the reputable science journalist portal EurekAlert. Choose one keyword for method and one for subject:

Method:

• Meta-analysis
• Randomised controlled/clinical trial
• Experimental study
• Observational study
• Case study
• Literature review
• Imaging analysis
• Data/statistical analysis
• Computational simulation/modeling
• Survey

Subject:

• People
• Animals
• Cells
• Human embryos
• Human tissue samples
• Animal tissue samples
• Lab-produced tissue samples

Journalists want pictures. First and foremost, we need a high-resolution portrait image of the researcher(s) quoted in the press release. The photo should be neutral or taken in an appropriate setting. We can help with photos if pictures are not available.

To enhance the impact of the press release, it is also helpful to include images that illustrate the results or research. This could be a photo or an illustration. (Failing all else, a graph, but diagrams rarely turn out well.) Avoid illustrations with text in them as this is against accessibility guidelines.

We can send images of any format as attachments to journalists, but the top image illustrating a press release as sent out needs to be in landscape format, 16:9.

You need to make sure that any images you send us are cleared for use, so that the media have the right to publish them. It is important to give the name of the photographer or originator of all images.

When a journalist calls, see it as a golden opportunity to share your unique knowledge. Bear in mind that the journalist has limited prior knowledge. Ask what the interview will be about and what questions you are expected to answer. If you’re not the right person to answer the questions, help the journalist find the right person.
If you are unsure, ask to get back to them a bit later. Use the time to think about the question. What audience will you reach through this media outlet? What do you want to say in this context?

Formulate (and write down) a few key points that you want to get across in the interview. Get hold of any information that may be useful to you in the interview. Always call back at the agreed time!

If the interview is about suspected irregularities, the journalist may know more about it than you do. Say you will get back to them, get hold of the facts and get in touch with the Communications Division for advice.

Use language that is as readily understandable as possible and try to be concise. Think about the target group – you are talking to the listeners/readers, not the journalist. Be sure to make the points you personally think are most important. Avoid speculation, it’s perfectly OK to answer “I don’t know” when that is the case.

In television and radio interviews, it is often possible to have another go at answering the question – it is in the journalist’s interest that the answer is good and understandable. Remember that irony never works in the media.

Journalists have often prepared questions and have a clear idea of why they want to do the interview. Don’t underestimate a journalist’s determination to obtain answers to their questions. If they want a clearer, more understandable or more ‘quotable’ answer, they repeat the question. A seemingly ‘stupid’ question can be the journalist’s way of getting an easy-to-understand explanation for their readers. Don’t lose your temper.

There is no such thing as ‘off the record’! It’s often tempting to say more than you intended once the official interview is over. Remember that anything said, even after the interview, may be used by the journalist. Your conversation is strictly a working relationship.

You can ask the journalist for a chance to read the article, but don’t be picky – focus on your own quotes and factual errors. Presentation, language and form are the journalist’s job. Do give positive feedback in an email if the result is good and make a note of good contacts for later occasions.

Be restrictive about demanding corrections. Feel free to contact the University Press Office and ask for advice.