Promoting your research
At Oryx, we are passionate about helping authors to maximize the reach and impact of their research. For in-depth information on how to promote your work using multiple tools and communication channels, please see our Writing for Conservation guide.
When promoting your research online and on social media, please ensure that you always use the article’s digital object identifier (DOI) link, which starts with https://doi.org. Unlike a link to a publisher’s website (in the case of Oryx, starting with https://www.cambridge.org/core/), which may change over time, the DOI link is stable and permanent, meaning people will be able to find your research under that address many years after it has been published. Using the DOI link is also important because Altmetric, a tool that many publishers use to help track an article’s (social) media impact, can only track posts that include the DOI. You can find more information about Altmetric on their website.
Once your article is accepted for publication, please send us any Twitter/Facebook/Instragram accounts you would like us to include in any of our social media posts to increase the reach and visibility of your research. If you post about your work on these channels, please tag us (@OryxTheJournal) so we can like and share your posts.
We encourage authors to work with their institutions to put out press releases that can help further promote their research. Press releases should include a link to the article’s DOI and a statement such as ‘The article is available in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation’. Please e-mail the editorial office at oryx@fauna-flora.org if you are planning to put out a press release with your institution (please note we cannot help write or distribute press releases). We will be then be able to establish an embargo date so that promotional material can be planned and released accordingly. Setting an embargo date allows us to specify the exact date on which an article will be published online.
Please note that posts published on the Oryx blog should not be replicated on other organizations’ websites. We are happy for you to promote your article on a different website, but please do not use the same text as that appearing on the Oryx blog, and remember to always use the DOI link to your article in any promotional activities.
Tips for writing a blog post
We are proud of our active and widely-read blog that provides a platform for our authors to showcase and promote their work, and to connect with a wider audience. If you would like to contribute a blog post, below are some tips and a template to help you with your writing.
A successful blog post is short, topical, and easy for readers to digest and engage with. This is a way to appeal to an audience of curious general readers, so the post should be informal and accessible, not a summary for an academic audience, or a full explanation of your research. If applicable, a blog post can be a great opportunity to provide some deeper insights into fieldwork, or an update on the situation since your study was carried out.
Ideally, a blog post should make people curious to read the full paper, and thus help promote your work and drive the usage and impact of your article.
If you are unsure what to write about, here are some questions to get you started:
- Why did you conduct the research/write the article? Why is it important?
- What would you tell somebody who has never heard about your study subject or area to make them curious to find out more?
- Does your research particularly relate to/influence/put into perspective a story in the news right now?
- Do you have interesting stories/anecdotes from the field/lab that could provide readers with a behind-the-scenes look at your research?
- Is there an element of your work you did not get to explore as fully as you would have liked?
- Were there any particularly challenging or uplifting aspects or situations during your study that you would like to share with readers?
Your post should be:
- concise (between 500 and 800 words) – see our blog post template
- conversational in tone and aimed at a general audience
- a way to promote your article
If you have an idea you are not sure about, feel free to ask.
Successful posts often utilize other media resources to engage the audience, such as video clips, audio recordings, photos, podcast interviews or relevant articles. If you have any of these, or would like us to work with you to put something together, please get in touch.
Here are some examples of blog posts, to give you an idea of the general format and style:
