The primary focus of the office is to share research news and news about graduate education at UCF with the outside world through traditional and new media platforms. Our office also helps with internal communications.

Our goal is to help our faculty and researchers share their work and together elevate UCF�s reputation as a metropolitan research university. We work with you to come up with the best way to share your news with the biggest impact. There are also benefits for you, from fulfilling grant outreach requirements to helping you get the attention of potential collaborators, graduate students and post docs, funding agencies and commercial companies.

Just reach out to us to get started.

Some of the things we do:

  1. Work with researchers to get their findings out to local, regional and national media.
  2. Offer tips to faculty for interviews.
  3. Write and distribute press releases to local, regional and/or national news.
  4. Coordinate press coverage with your college and the UCF Central Communications Office including press conference.
  5. Publish stories on UCF Today, Office of Research and Graduate Studies websites.
  6. Share news on the Office of Research and/or College of Graduate Studies social media platforms and coordinate on social media postings with Central Communications Office and colleges.
  7. Coordinate research news with funding agencies (NSF, NIH, etc.) when appropriate to help amplify audience reach.
  8. Take photos and limited video as warranted.
  9. Create and publish the monthly InSight Newsletter, which focuses on research and scholarship.
  10. Share stories and announcements with other offices at UCF, such as Faculty Excellence and colleges.
  11. Look for opportunities to get you on media outlets – TV news, Science Friday, Ted Talks, and more.

How to get started?

UCF is a big place and our staff is small. We are a team, and we need your help to get the word out about your research or work with graduate students. If we haven’t reached out to you about a pending publication or your amazing work or students, chances are we don’t know about it. When should you reach out? Here are some examples:

    Journal Articles

    Please contact us when your journal article has been accepted. Don�t wait until after publication. We follow all embargo rules and protocols of all the journals. By contacting us when your work has been accepted, you give us time to complete our process and produce the best press release, photos and video when appropriate. Provide a brief description of your work (a layperson�s abstract would be great) and the journal you will be publishing in.

 

               Next steps:
    • We will reach out to you and ask a few questions by email or phone to determine media potential.
    • We will likely ask to read your manuscript, which we will not share nor post. This is for us to do our homework.
    • We will conduct an interview with you. Think of this as practice for a reporter interview.
    • We will write a draft press release and share it with you. We ask you fact check it and share your thoughts on tone.
    • We schedule photos and/or video after discussing the approach to media for the release.
    • We have a final draft to you for review.
    • We publish the day the embargo lifts and if all goes well media coverage follows.
    • Depending on the research, we may provide alternate suggestions for the biggest impact.
    On-going Research

    This is a visual world. If you have ongoing research that has visual elements, call us before you are done. We can capture good images and there may be other media opportunities beyond published journals. Think of these questions when determining news worthiness:
    • What is new?
    • If I didn’t work at UCF, why would I read about this?
    • How does this impact the world?
    • Is this something I would share with a friend?
    Students

    Do you have amazing students (graduate or undergraduate) or post docs who are working in your labs? Maybe they are working on some amazing project with the community. Let us know.

    Graduate Education

    Do you see a trend in graduate education or have you come up with a way to solve a problem facing grad students in your area of expertise? Let us know. Starting a new program to help graduate students at UCF and/or beyond? Drop us an email.

    National Awards

    Have you or one of your students recently been recognized for a national award? Let us know. It won�t always result in a story, but we can certainly share the information with others that may result in recognition in other ways � Board of Trustees, Faculty Excellence feature story, special university projects, etc.

    Just Plain Cool

    Do you have an idea or are you working on something that�s just plain cool? Reach out, and share. Chances are we can come up with a good way to get some attention for it. In 2018, we placed more than 500 media stories.

Why Bother?

There are lots of benefits to working with our office, beyond recognition for your work.

  • Grants often require an outreach component, and we can help fill that requirement.
  • Funding agencies have in the past spotted a news story about one of our researchers and invited them to submit for other funding opportunities.
  • Recruitment of quality students and post docs.
  • Good collaborators and investors may see your work and reach out.
  • Photos we take are public, and we will share them for use on your website.
Your Commitment

We will work hard to get your work placed, but we also need a commitment from you. We expect you to:

  • respond to our team in a timely manner
  • be available to media
  • be available for photos
  • respond to media inquiries in a timely manner (within hours not days)
  • ask questions
  • be an active participant in the communication process