The acceptance email arrives. You tell your co-authors, maybe your family, and then the paper appears online six weeks later with no announcement at all. Somewhere in between was the moment your university's press office could have helped, and nobody told them.
Press officers cannot promote what they do not know about, and they need time. This is how to give them what they need, when they need it.
What a Press Office Can Actually Do
Many institutions have a press or media relations office whose job is to get the institution's research covered. The PLOS media toolkit for authors lists what a press office may be able to help with: writing press releases, distributing them to journalists and media outlets, preparing social media outreach, organising press briefings, and organising interviews with journalists.
What they cannot do is cover everything. They choose. Your job is to make your paper easy to say yes to.
The Timeline From Acceptance to Publication
The single most useful habit is contacting the press office at acceptance, not at publication. Here is one illustrative way that window can break down, anchored on PLOS's published policies as a concrete example (other publishers and press offices differ, so check your journal's own press page and ask your press office how far ahead they plan).
| When | What happens | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Acceptance | Tell the press office, and the journal's media team if it has one | You |
| Soon after | Ask the journal for the publication date and embargo time | You or the press office |
| Before the embargo | Agree what the story is; draft the release and quote | Press office, with you |
| Before release | Check the release for accuracy and approve it | You |
| Up to 7 days before | Embargoed release sent to journalists | Press office |
| Embargo lifts | Article goes live; coverage and your own posts can go out | Everyone |
The details behind that table, at the time of writing (October 2026):
- The PLOS media toolkit asks authors to contact the PLOS media team as soon as the paper has been accepted to share promotion plans and ask about the publication date, and recommends copying your press office into that communication.
- PLOS ONE's press and media page says that if it does not press release a paper and the authors choose to work with their institution, they should contact the institution as soon as the manuscript has been accepted.
- PLOS ONE articles are embargoed until 2 p.m. US Eastern Time on the date of publication, according to the same page.
- The PLOS embargo policy says press officers may send embargoed materials to the media up to seven days before the embargo date, clearly marked with the embargo date and time.
- When PLOS ONE itself press releases a paper, it gives authors 24 to 48 hours to review the release for accuracy and approve it, per its press and media page.
If you leave it until the paper is online, most of that window is gone.
Understand the Embargo Before You Post
An embargo is the time before which nobody may publish a story about the paper. It gives journalists time to prepare and lets everyone publish at once.
It can also apply to you. Rules differ between publishers, so read your own journal's press or embargo page. PLOS ONE's press and media page, for example, says that once research has been accepted and assigned a publication date, it is subject to embargo, and asks authors who want to blog or post about an accepted manuscript on social media to wait until the embargo lifts and include a link to the article. The same page says authors may communicate research for scientific purposes before publication, including at conferences, on social media and on preprint servers, and may discuss research under embargo with journalists, telling them about the embargo in all their communications.
Under a policy like that, hold your LinkedIn post, your lab news item and your thread until the moment the embargo lifts. Then post them all, each with the link.
What to Send Them: A One-Page Brief
Make the first email to the press office do most of the work, so they can judge the story without a round of questions. Here is a brief you can copy and fill in.
Paper: Full title, all authors, journal.
Dates: Expected publication date and embargo time (or "waiting for the journal").
In plain words: Two or three sentences a 15-year-old would follow.
The one finding: The single result you would want in a headline, with its size and who it applies to.
Why now, why here: Who it affects, and any local, seasonal or policy angle.
What it does not show: One honest limitation, so nobody overclaims.
Draft quote: Two sentences from you, in the voice you would use with a friend.
Visuals: Images, figures or video you have the rights to share.
Availability: Days and times you can do interviews, and any co-author who can cover when you cannot.
The plain-words section is where most researchers struggle. Our guide to writing a plain language summary walks through it.
PLOS's toolkit has advice that applies directly to the brief: aim for 200 to 400 words in a release, start with your most exciting finding, avoid technical terms, and be very careful not to overstate your conclusions. Doing that yourself in the brief saves a round of edits.
When a Journalist Calls
If the release goes out, you may be contacted quickly. The PLOS toolkit advises responding to journalists promptly because they work to tight deadlines, confirming before an interview that the journalist will respect the embargo, preparing one or two main points in advance, and not commenting on anything outside your expertise.
Let the press office know when a journalist gets in touch, and ask whether they want to set up or sit in on the call.
If They Pass
A press office may decline your paper. A no is not the end.
PLOS ONE's press and media page notes that its own press team only has space for a limited number of press releases each week, and the toolkit says you can write a press release yourself. It also lists other ways to publicise a paper: update departmental pages and lab websites, add the new paper to your email signature, discuss it on social and scientific networks, and ask co-authors to share it on their channels.
Ask the press office one more question before you go: would they include the paper in a newsletter, a research roundup or the department's news page instead of a full release? Smaller placements may be easier to fit in. For a full plan after publication, see our 30-day promotion plan.
Giving the Press Office Something to Show
A press office can do more with a story that comes with visuals. If you do not have any, Amplify turns one paper into a video abstract (16:9, about 3 minutes), a vertical short (9:16, 45 to 60 seconds), an audio brief in English (plus 21 more languages on request) and a one-page, print-ready infographic.
Everything is generated from the PDF you upload and nothing else, and every artifact carries the title, the authors and a link back to the paper of record. A person reviews every format before it is released, and nothing publishes until you approve it, so you can hold everything until the embargo lifts. An embeddable widget puts all of it on your faculty or lab page, with analytics on reads, listens and questions that are useful later for grant reports.
Make It Easy to Say Yes
The press office is on your side, but it is choosing among many papers. Tell them at acceptance, send a brief they can use without rewriting, respect the embargo, and have a plan for promoting the paper yourself if they pass.
