Comms_Strategy.md

Geoscience Communications -- Communications Strategy

Executive Editors: Sam Illingworth, Iain Stewart, Jon Tennant & Kirsten v. Elverfeldt.

Tagline from website: Geoscience Communication (GC) is a journal to help share knowledge and give more "traditional" recognition to science communication in the geosciences. Science communication is used as an umbrella term by GC to cover all aspects of outreach, public engagement, widening participation, knowledge exchange, and any other initiatives within the scope of the journal. It can be thought of as any initiative which seeks to communicate an aspect of geoscience to a wider audience than the experts within that particular field.

Primary website: https://www.geoscience-communication.net/

Social media outlets

1. Zotero -- Create a reference list of articles for people to share publicly. Managed by JT.

   1. https://www.zotero.org/groups/2186748/geoscience_communication

2. Facebook -- Create a Facebook group/page to post updates, including newly published articles. Make sure EGU is connected in to each post. Managed by all.

   1. LINK (will create after first article is published)

3. Twitter. For community engagement, updates, and new article alerts. Managed by all.

   1. https://twitter.com/EGU_GC

4. GitHub -- For storage of relevant resources as a companion to the main journal page.

   1. https://github.com/Protohedgehog/Geoscience_Communication

Strategic partners:

• Creative Commons (CC-BY licensed articles)

  • https://twitter.com/creativecommons

• Crossref

  • https://twitter.com/CrossrefOrg

• ORCID

  • https://twitter.com/ORCID_Org

• COPE

  • https://twitter.com/C0PE

• CLOCKSS

  • https://twitter.com/clockssarchive

• iThenticate

  • https://twitter.com/ithenticate

How to improve Altmetric scores

• Each article shared once on Facebook, with key snippet from Abstract or about importance of the article. Make sure to name all authors (Kirsten). During 'quiet periods', make sure to post once or twice a week either showcasing journal features, or doing a call for submissions.

• Each Executive Editor (and relevant Editors) to tweet about the new article. Not just the title, but the importance of the study. Make sure to add Copernicus and EGU to each tweet.

  • https://twitter.com/copernicus_org

  • https://twitter.com/EuroGeosciences

• Import each article into shared Zotero group (All).

  • https://www.zotero.org/groups/2186748/geoscience_communication

• Directly contact relevant bloggers, news outlets, and individuals on Twitter with new articles as relevant (All). This mostly applies to articles flagged as 'media-worthy'.

  • Curate a database of these contacts (All).

• For each article, periodically check the Altmetric tracker to see where articles have been shared (JT).

• Add articles to any relevant Wikipedia pages (All).

• Share articles on the /science subreddit (JT).

Target audiences

• Students
• GC is an APC-free OA journal with open peer review
• Researchers
• Geoscientists
• Science communication specialists
• Policymakers
• https://www.parliament.uk/post
• http://senseaboutscience.org/

Email template to authors once paper is published

Dear [author name],

On behalf of Geoscience Communication, we would like to congratulate and thank you for your recent publication, [insert title]. We appreciate each and every submission we receive, and our grateful that you chose Geoscience Communication for your work.

Now that your article has been peer reviewed and published, you will want to maximise your audience for it. Thankfully, all articles we publish are Open Access thanks to Copernicus, and appropriately licensed (CC BY) to maximise re-use, while enabling you to get full credit for your research Some suggestions for dissemination include:

• Posting the article to Twitter. Make sure to include any relevant hashtags, as well as interested individuals and organisations, and include @EGU_GC too.

• Share your article on Facebook. Not just with your friends and colleagues, but on any groups or pages that might find it interesting too.

• Consider creating a short video of your research and sharing it on our Facebook page.

• If you use social networking sites such as ResearchGate or Academia.edu, you are allowed to post the final, typeset version of your paper here, or any platform you wish.

• Writing a blog article about your research, including a non-specialist summary.

• If applicable, contact any journalists or bloggers who might be interested in covering your research.

We would be more than happy to provide any assistance with any of these things.

All of this helps to expand your readership and can also provide your research with a greater ‘Altmetric’ score. Altmetric scores are an indicator of how much your research has been shared in digital spaces and in what context and provide a nice compliment to traditional citation-based metrics. You can learn more about them here.

At Geoscience Communication, we believe that research should be communicated as widely as possible, to all potential audiences that might find it useful and have an impact upon. Altmetrics provide a qualitative and quantitative way of demonstrating that communication effort and impact.

Yours sincerely,

The Geoscience Communication editorial team

Additional resources

• Stickers.
• Run a logo design competition for this one.
• Suggest 1000 in the first print run, with 250 going to each Editor.
• Create an online resource database for marketing/communication items.
• Includes logos, flyers/posters, presentations, and other media.
• Use GitHub as central database for this.
• Include ‘readme’ for defining what it is we’re doing in terms of scope, policy, rigour etc.