Where to find a science story

Press releases

Most science journalists find their news stories in press releases. Thousands of research papers are published in academic journals every week. Some institutions and journals make these findings known to the wider public by issuing a press release after a journal publishes the study. They then disseminate these press releases either directly or through press release services, such as EurekAlert and Alpha Galileo. By subscribing to such services, you will get access to the latest press releases in a wide range of research areas. Subscription to science press release alerts is free for journalists: you just need to go to the relevant websites and register.

The advantage of using press releases is that they present the information in simple language. Also, the writers of the press release will likely already have identified the most newsworthy angle. The downside is that some press releases exaggerate the research findings. Therefore, after reading the press release, it’s important to then access the research paper it relates to.

It is important to note that there are many potentially newsworthy research findings that are not the subject of press releases, so you will miss a lot of research findings if you rely only on press releases.

Scientific conferences

Many newsworthy scientific research findings and policy developments are presented and discussed at scientific conferences. These conferences may take place in person or virtually and they are an important source of stories and story ideas.

Conferences are usually announced many months in advance, so you can create a calendar of conferences to attend.

For each conference, it’s important to look at the agenda and to prepare your own daily calendar based on the sessions you are interested in. Looking at the abstract book, if one is available, allows you to identify which sessions are most likely to have the most newsworthy presentations.

Away from the main conference sessions, make sure you pay attention to exhibitions and poster presentations as these might also yield important stories.

For more on how to harvest great science stories and ideas from a conference, please see Chapter 7 of our free science journalism ebook.

Research facilities and field sites

Institutions sometimes invite journalists to visit their research facilities and sites. Alternatively, journalists may request permission to visit a research facility or site. Either way, such a visit is an opportunity to get stories, story ideas, rare photos, general scientific knowledge and useful contacts.

If the research institution initiates the trip and meets the costs, you may need to discuss with your editor about the ethical implications. Different media organizations have different editorial policies on embedded journalism. If the visit is at your own initiative, ensure you get the necessary permissions from the relevant organizations. Permission might need to come from the head of the research institute or a higher office.

Regardless of the research institution’s interest in organizing or granting permission for the visit, do not forget that your responsibility is to the audience and to citizens. An institution will usually be interested in projecting a good image of itself. On the other hand, you have a duty to provide audiences with accurate, unbiased, relevant, timely and interesting information. Your job is not to give publicity to the institution. However, most likely, you will be able to report reliable information that is relevant and interesting to the audiences, while at the same creating visibility for the institution.

While at the research institution or facility, ensure you leave your contacts with researchers and with the communications team. Going forward, you will want them to give you tip-offs about interesting developments in their spheres. You may also need them to provide expert views and facts for your stories in future.

For more on how to report on lab visits and field trips, please see our free practical guide.

Organizational reports

Local and international scientific organizations publish reports to communicate facts, trends and their positions on a topic or a sector. These reports may have information that can be interesting and relevant to the public and policymakers. Such reports may give you a news story or several different story ideas. They may also provide useful background information for a story you are working on.

The title of the report will tell you what it’s all about. The name of the organization issuing the report will give you an idea about its credibility. The date will tell you how current the information is. The table of contents will list what’s in the report, while the executive summary will give you highlights of the content.

You can get a great story by identifying newsworthy information in a report and going out to speak to affected persons and experts. This combination of technical information, expert views and real life experiences makes a good story.

Scientists

Being able to network with scientists and get information from them is an important part of science journalism. As discussed above, you can find scientists at a research institution. You can also find them elsewhere: for example, over the phone, by email or on social media platforms. You need to continually make contacts with new scientists. Create and keep a contact list of scientists you meet or interact with. Keep adding new names to your list. In science journalism, having a big database of scientists you can speak to is a great resource.

Other stakeholders in science

There are multiple stakeholders who can be affected by developments in science. These include political leaders, the business community and frontline workers in various fields, such as agriculture and medicine. These people may get to know about scientific developments early, and can give you a tip-off about them. They may also have access to reports that you might not otherwise know about.

Online resources

There is plenty of information online but you have to be careful as false scientific information abounds on the internet. An ordinary Google and Wikipedia search can be useful for finding general information. However, there is no guarantee that what you get will be verified scientific information.

To obtain verified scientific information, it’s better to search from databases. The information you get by searching databases will have gone through a reasonable degree of verification. Some databases are free (for example, Pubmed Central), while others are paid-for (for example, Science Direct).

Use multiple sources

In this practical guide, we’ve looked at various sources of information. However, in finding a science story, none of the information sources mentioned above will suffice on their own. A good science story should have information and views from multiple sources. Take, for instance, a study that shows that water scarcity affects women disproportionately. A story on such a study should report the research findings and quote one of the researchers, but that is not all. A researcher who did not take part in the study can provide an independent expert view. The experiences of the affected women will illustrate the problem. A policymaker will tell you whether the recommendations proposed by the researchers is workable. Thus, getting information from more than one source makes your story more informative and more balanced.