Science news release and its benefits to your research

Abstract

News release to the latest science findings is beneficial to both researchers and their served institutions as well as the public. It will help to set a bridge of communication between researchers, the public and media, and publishers, making the latest research findings well known to the public. World Journal of Gastroenterology has currently freely opened the News Release Service System (WJG-NRSS) for original articles with potential significance and novelty for news release to mass media to broaden the findings to the public.

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News release to your research findings before publication in mass media is beneficial to both researchers and their served institutions. It will help to bridge the communication among researchers, the public and media, and publishers, particularly making the latest findings of the researchers well known to the public. An investigation from The New England Journal of Medicine shows that the citation rate of an article increase seven times when the findings of an article have been reported by New York Times.

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG) has currently freely opened the News Release Service System (WJG-NRSS) for the authorized reporters for news release in mass media such as EurekAlert!. As one of the registered members with identity of an international peer reviewed journal, WJG has been authorized to release science news on EurekAlert! (Figure 1).

Figure 1 WJG as a registered member to EurekAlert! with an identity of an international peer reviewed journal.

As an online, global news service operated by AAAS, the science society, EurekAlert! is one of the central places through which WJG can bring the authors’ latest findings to the media and public. WJG science news features the resources focused on all original articles with both significance and novelty. EurekAlert! has 923 registered entities including WJG, and has timely delivery of the released news to the public and its 5400 journalists worldwide.

WJG has encouraged those articles with both significance and novelty to release news before its publication on EurekAlert! so that more readers could share the researcher’s latest findings and ongoing research. The sample science news released by WJG on EurekAlert! are shown in Table 1. The number of hits shows that the four science news with amusive titles have been very attractive to readers.

Table 1 Science news from World Journal of Gastroenterology released to EurekAlert!.

Science news	Released media	Date posted	Hits since posted
Targeting nerve growth factor may cure liver cancer[1]	http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/wjog-tng090507.php	September 7, 2007	713
Researchers discover correlation between GERD and obesity in females[2]	http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/wjog-agr090407.php	September 5, 2007	756
Who will recover spontaneously from hepatitis C virus infection[3]	http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/wjog-wwr082807.php	August 29, 2007	504
Clearance of hepatitis C viral infection[4]	http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/wjog-coh082807.php	August 29, 2007	355

An excellent news is very essential to achieve the expectations. In addition to basic guidelines for general news writings, we recommend some specific guidelines for our reporters in WJG science news writings. News titles may be different from the original article but should be attractive and informative. The main body of news is less than 1000 words with a summary of both less than 75 words. Interesting pictures are also strongly recommended. The deadline for news submission is about one week before publication. Since most readers to science news are not experts, journalists should avoid scientific jargon and use everyday language in news writings regardless of the topic or content. Finally but importantly, be sure the science news is lawful and ethical.