Writing & Publishing an ACCESS Story Process
- Dina Meek
AUTHOR | Megan Johnson | ||
APPROVER | Dina Meek | ||
DATE | 10/19/24 | ||
VERSION UPDATES | This is the initial version | ||
WHO WILL USE THIS | Writers on the ACCESS Marcomm team | ||
PURPOSE OR INTENT | Process Objective: This document will help those writing ACCESS stories follow a strategic process for writing an engaging story that captures all the required elements including elements that help meet ACCESS Marcomm objectives and NSF guidelines for required citation. | ||
DELIVERABLES | A well-written story shared on social media. | ||
RELATED LINKS | |||
PRIOR TO WRITING THE RELEASE
A feature story is usually generated by an ACCESS team member. Team members will either reach out to the head of the ACCESS Marcomm team or to their ACCESS Marcomm representative.
The ACCESS Marcomm team meets every other week and includes writers and representatives from the various arms of ACCESS – situated at various institutions across the U.S. – who will occasionally provide ideas for stories.
Science stories can be:
scouted by searching the Allocations database (linked here, but you’ll need to reach out to Allocations for login credentials)
found by keeping tabs on Resource Provider (RP) news feeds
sent to us by RP Marcomm representatives
Found via a news aggregator like Meltwater. The ACCESS Marcomm team lead will send you alerts when a story comes to them this way.
The ACCESS Marcomm team lead or another writing lead on the team based at NCSA, will set the project up in the ACCESS project management system (accessed solely by NCSA-based team members). They will give the project a specific name used for tracking.
3. USE THIS TEMPLATE IN WRITING YOUR RELEASE
For NCSA employees, use the template to create a new document and store the file here, creating a folder for it with the same name as the document. Use the name assigned in the project management system as the name of the file and folder when applicable.
For non-NCSA employees, make a copy of the template to create your draft. Once it’s ready for final review, you’ll then share a copy of the draft with the ACCESS Marcomm lead so we may capture it for our archives.
Fill in the information box at the top of the template.
For the Persona Tag field, each of these tags corresponds with a Persona landing page. Stories tagged with these tags will show up in the news feed of the corresponding page. If you use a persona tag, be sure the information in the story is relevant to that persona. You can choose more than one Persona Tag if the story is relevant to more than one persona.
For the Tag field, choose as many tags as you need to describe the content of the story.
Name of Institution: This is the Resource Provider - so SDSC, RCAC, IACS, TACC, PSC, NCSA, etc.
Affiliates: These are all the universities and various institutions involved in the research outside of the RP.
Funding Agency: NSF needs to be here, but we also include any additional funding agencies.
Grant and or Allocation numbers must be included before posting. If you can’t find these numbers, ask the Marcomm team lead for assistance.
You will need to choose a photo for the hero image. Chosen Images should be flexible enough to work both in landscape ratio and 4:3 due to the way our website displays these images. We primarily use images from Rawpixel or Adobe Stock, but any open-source, free-to-use images are fine. Cite in the caption when required.
Follow the instructions in the template for organizing content.
WHEN WRITING A WRAPPER
Keep the word count below 1,000 words.
In the first or second paragraph, find a way to use the org name, ACCESS, and link back to the homepage.
This helps assist with SEO metrics.
Make sure you mention and link out to any RPs or affiliates involved in the research.
Attempt to include at least one pull quote
Pull quotes should be about how ACCESS helped. Whenever possible try to get researchers to quantify this, such as how it reduced time. Try to keep them brief, for visual sake. All pull quotes are attributed.
Include a Call-to-Action (CTA) toward the end of the piece.
Example wording “If you’re interested in boosting your research project with an ACCESS allocation, go here to get started.”
At the end of the piece, make sure to link to the original article.
WHEN WRITING A FEATURE
In the case of an ACCESS story, reach out to the requestor to see who you need to interview.
The requestor may give you contacts to interview, or may connect you with your interview subjects at this time.
Ask the subject if they prefer to be interviewed in person or in writing. Some subjects have an easier time fitting a written interview into their schedule.
If interviewing a subject to write up a science feature, here are the standard questions we use:
How would you like your name written in the piece and which pronouns do you prefer to be called by?
What is your current position?
Do you have a professional headshot or photo of yourself we can use in the piece? Please attach or link to it in your response.
Explain your research in 3-6 sentences as if you were talking to a family member about your work. We're looking for an accessible explanation of your research so the general public can understand.
What is the impact of this research?
Do you plan to expand on this work? How so?
What ACCESS resource(s) did you use for this research and how?
Can you comment a little bit about your experience working with ACCESS in general and/or the resource team? Is there anyone in particular you'd like to mention as being helpful to this project?
How did ACCESS make a difference?
Are there other publications related to this work you'd like us to link to?
Be sure to give interview subjects a deadline for responding when sending a written interview.
WRITING THE FEATURE
Be sure to adhere to the ACCESS house style, which is a modification of the Associated Press Style. You can find the specific style rules for grammar here.
Features should fall within 1,000-1,500 words in length.
For SEO purposes, try to use ACCESS in the first two paragraphs and link to our homepage (http://access-ci.org ).
Ensure you have permission to use any images you choose. Make sure you properly caption all images.
Choose a good pull quote – something that speaks to how ACCESS assisted in the research.
SUBMITTING THE FEATURE FOR REVIEW
We always send the copy to the stakeholders for review for accuracy first. Make sure that anyone quoted, interviewed or consulted is given commenting permissions on the document. We do not give editing permissions on our documents to anyone outside of ACCESS Marcomm.
Give stakeholders a reasonable deadline. We try to give them at least a week for features.
Once the stakeholders have signed off, incorporate any suggestions you need to before sending the copy on to the ACCESS Marcomm team lead for a final copy edit. You must have a sign-off from the manager before you post your story.
POSTING THE FEATURE
You will need a WP account to post stories on the website. Ask the ACCESS Marcomm team lead for this access.
Go to this page to begin: https://access-ci.org/wp-admin
Click on “Post,” then “Add New Post.”
Begin with filling in the important information in the post bar in the right column.
Use the content you filled out in the top part of the template to add the featured image, category, tags and excerpt.
Copy your story elements into the body of the story.
Add any supporting images to your story, and make sure you preview the story to see how it looks. Formatting in WordPress can be tricky.
Images often require citation/crediting unless you have purchased them.
When using images from a research paper, cite the paper or credit the author.
Double-check any free images you use to make sure you’re using the correct citation when required.
All free stock photo sites have guidelines for using their images. Here are the guidelines for Rawpixel. Familiarize yourself with these guidelines, as most stock photo sites have similar rules.
Double-check all your links to make sure they work.
Make sure all your images have alt-tag descriptions for accessibility compliance.
When you’re ready to post, remember these guidelines:
We try to space stories at least a day apart if possible.
We try not to post on Friday if possible.
After posting or scheduling your post, let the staff responsible for posting social media and the newsletter know so they are aware of new content.
In the tag, make sure to link to any images that could be used in Socials.
For Feature stories, we’re responsible for assisting with social media copy, so include some copy for the social team to work with. The excerpt is a good starting point for this copy.
Alert the stakeholders when the story has been posted. Send them the URL and encourage them to share on their social media. Let them know we’ll be doing the same.
Tips & Tricks
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