Español | Português | 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | 日本語

High-quality Content Serves Everyone

With 30 years and hundreds of thousands of news releases that have crossed our computer screens, our editorial team has gained a clear understanding of what makes a “good” news release for our audiences.

As a nonprofit, mission-driven platform aimed at facilitating broad communication of science, EurekAlert! has insisted upon having trained editors review every content submission against our in-house eligibility guidelines. This basic level of quality control ensures that we remain useful to journalists and accessible to both the scientific enterprise and the broader public.

Our Editors Agree

Elements of successful news releases:

• A clear and concise headline that does not mislead or exaggerate. This attracts journalists and a broader audience alike.
• Original multimedia produced by the researchers and/or press office that is cleared for re-use by media outlets.
• Plenty of quotes, ideally from multiple areas of expertise to draw out different story angles.
• Easy-to-read narrative with clear descriptions and minimal technical language, acronyms, or jargon (if technical vocabulary or acronyms must be used, include a plain-language definition or short glossary at the end of the release).
• Relatable context for the new findings, ideally with a human angle that shows the usefulness and importance of the research.
• Short paragraphs, descriptive subheads, and formatting that make the release easier to scan and read.
• A few hyperlinks to relevant and useful external documents — most importantly to the research publication (a DOI hyperlink) if applicable (but not too many).
• A short paragraph introducing the research institution(s) involved (a.k.a. boilerplates) at the end, especially for lesser known organizations.

Help Us Help You

To ensure the quality and usefulness of the EurekAlert! platform, editors are empowered to reject, re-categorize, or request revisions of a content submission if it has any of the following:

• Long, complex headlines that exceed the character limit. Journalist feedback and SEO best practice indicate headlines that are 60 characters or fewer are ideal.
• Only a single paragraph.
• Study abstracts or excerpts copied in whole or in part, with little or no editing.
• Overly dense, jargon-filled, or highly technical language that non-scientists would not understand or be interested in.
• Multimedia that is sourced from stock providers or appears to be a stock image or AI-generated.
• Insufficient titles, credit, and/or captions on multimedia. (Titles should be short and descriptive; credit must be given to the original source or creator; captions need to be in complete sentences).

Learn from the Best

Every week, EurekAlert! editors pick their favorite news releases and articulate why they like them. Find inspiration from these releases (and maybe see your own celebrated) by subscribing to  #EurekAlertStaffPicks Newsletter.

The Trending News section on the EurekAlert! homepage is curated daily by our editors based on a number of criteria, including high number of visits by journalists and public visitors. Learn what they look for in this blog post. (insert url).

Join the free EurekAlert! Webinar series with our editors and trainers from our AAAS partner SciLine. Register at www.eurekalert.org/webinars.