Writing a Blog Post about Your Journal Article
Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.
As researchers, we often emphasize writing journal articles. But also sharing research in other ways can increase its visibility and impact. For example, writing a blog post based on an article can attract readers, increase citations, and inform policymakers and others.
In “How to Write a Blogpost from Your Journal Article in Eleven Easy Steps”, Professor Patrick Dunleavy, of the London School of Economics, therefore urges researchers to write blog posts. He also provides many tips for doing so. Here’s some of his main advice:
Limit your post to about 1000 words.
Delete or greatly condense the methods section.
Delete or greatly condense the literature review.
Provide a title that presents your main message. Keep it less than 140 characters, so it can be tweeted.
Early in the post, provide content that will attract readers.
Present your main finding near the beginning.
If possible, include one to four tables or charts. Keep them simple. Include color.
Minimize use of specialized terms (jargon). Define any such terms. Be careful about using acronyms.
Write shorter paragraphs than in a journal.
Use hyperlinks instead of references.
End the post by summarizing in a lively way.
Below the post, provide the title of your journal article and a link to the article.
Finally, include a few lines of information about yourself.
Send your post to a multi-author blog that is widely read in your field.
I thank Ruth Bottomley of INASP for mentioning the post by Professor Dunleavy.
Do you have a resource to suggest? If so, please let me know.
Until the next post—
Barbara