Reaching out to the outside world with new research results is an important task for the university. It contributes to increased interest and understanding of ongoing research.
Through this process, you learn to write about your research in a popular science way, and if we catch the interest of journalists, your results can get media coverage.
Here are two examples of news about dissertations that appeared in local and national media. Feel free to get inspiration from them!
1. Title. Begin with a proposal for a heading. Remember that a heading should be active and that it should convey the most important thing in the thesis. ("AI accelerates the development of the 5G network" is much better than "Methods for diagnostics in mobile networks".)
2. Preamble. The first paragraph, the introduction, should contain the central conclusion(s) of your work.
3. Results. Summarize your key findings. Have you discovered something new? How does the thesis contribute to increasing knowledge in your research area?
4. Benefit. Who can benefit from your research results? How can they be used in practice? This is important and what journalists and the public are primarily interested in, so raise this early in the text, preferably already in the title or introduction.
5. Language. Use as simple Swedish as possible! Avoid or explain technical terms. Avoid abbreviations. Keep in mind that you are now writing for a non-scientific circle, for the ordinary newspaper reader. Concepts that are obvious to you may be completely incomprehensible to others. Therefore, feel free to test the text on a person who is not an expert in your subject area, for example grandma or a teenager in your environment.
6. Facts about you. In a separate paragraph at the end, you can state where you grew up, studied and/or worked previously if you wish.
7. Text length. The subject should be approximately 2,500 to 3,000 characters including spaces.
Additional materials to bring
1. Basic facts about the defense. Written as follows: On Friday, October 13, Åsa Johansson, Department of Physics at Umeå University, will defend her thesis entitled Disturbances in the immune and hormone systems in dystrophia myotonica. The defense takes place at 1:00 p.m. in Hall B, 9 tr, Tandläkarhögskolan. Opponent is Professor Sigbritt Werner, Huddinge Hospital.
2. Electronic publication. State the link that your thesis received in the university library's database DIVA.
3. Contact details. The section with contact details must contain your mobile number and your e-mail address.
4. Photo. Attach a sharp, high-resolution portrait image with a neutral background that is free to use. If you don't have a good picture, you can book portrait photography in a studio at the Communication Unit free of charge. (Note: Do this well in advance.) It is also good to send a field or laboratory image.
Editing and publishing
We edit your material according to journalistic principles and shape it into a news article that we send to you for comments and proofreading. Nothing is published until you have read and approved the content.
Press release
If we judge that the news is of sufficient public interest, we will also send it out in the form of a press release to the media. It is advisable to do this about a week before the defense. We decide a date together and it is then important that you are available for journalists' questions.
