AlphaGalileo News
Please accept our apologies for any cross-posting.
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CONTENTS
UK universities invited to join the AlphaGalileo crusade
Best time to post your release?
Posting policy and archives
New contributors
Site statistics
And finally
Email addresses of the AlphaGalileo editorial team
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UK UNIVERSITIES INVITED TO JOIN THE ALPHAGALILEO CRUSADE
Richard Sykes, the President of the British Association, has written to
all vice-chancellors of UK universities inviting them to join the
AlphaGalileo crusade for greater openness towards the media. The
invitation follows several comments from journalists that no matter how
effective AlphaGalileo was, without news it was nothing and that UK
universities lagged far behind their US counterparts in this respect. Our
French colleagues are also making efforts to encourage their research
establishments to understand the importance of the media in persuading
young people, industry and the tax-payer of the significance of their
scientific research.
Whilst AlphaGalileo's aims are those of greater public understanding of
science across Europe, for universities, research establishments and
research councils more 'selfish' benefits accrue from greater press
coverage of their work, in terms of more and better quality students,
wider industrial collaborations and a higher profile for themselves in
the community.
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THE BEST TIME TO POST YOUR RELEASE?
The pattern of log-ins to AlphaGalileo shows that journalists visit the
site immediately after releases are posted, however the largest numbers
of journalists log-in between 10.00 and 16.00 hours (BST) on Thursdays,
with Wednesdays as the next best time. So if you are able to pick a time
to issue a release and you want to pick-up journalists who haven't opted
for the email alert service, try to post on Wednesday or Thursday
mornings before 10 am.
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POSTING POLICY AND ARCHIVES
We continue to receive releases that do not match our posting policy. Our
priority is news of developments in science and technology. Science
policy issues are fine: public relations claims for your university are
not! Please check the site for the full policy or email the duty editor
([log in to unmask]) for guidance.
Another problem we occasionally get are old releases being posted. We are
happy to provide an archive of past releases, but if you post them in the
normal way they will trigger email alerts to journalists. And ass the
saying goes, 'old news is no news'. If you have older releases you'd like
to archive please email the duty editor first and warn them. We can then
arrange for the releases to be added to the database via the on-site form
but without them triggering alerts and with a posting date that matches
their original publication date.
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NEW CONTRIBUTORS
New users in the last fortnight have include the Netherlands research
council NWO and the University of Cambridge. The University of Ulster was
so pleased with their first use of AlphaGalileo that they have suggested
that a similar service for the Arts and Humanities would be helpful.
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SITE STATISTICS
On 28 May the site had:
Registered Journalists: 639
Registered Contributors: 461
Press Notices: 1199
Calendar Events: 186
Week beginning 17 May was our busiest week ever with 5,769 accesses.
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AND FINALLY...
Despite receiving this email last week we have no intention of
challenging News International or even the Swindon Advertiser and turning
AlphaGalileo into a news paper.
"Good morning. Journalists, and contributors, gives you two out of
three. Why do you insult readers? With out us, how does your garden
grow ($$$)?".
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EMAIL ADDRESSES OF THE ALPHAGALILEO EDITORIAL TEAM
Peter Green (Project Director) [log in to unmask]
Alun Roberts (UK Editor) [log in to unmask]
Sabine Louet (International Coordinating Editor)
[log in to unmask]
Site Editor (Duty editor) [log in to unmask]
If your message is urgent and you want to avoid a emailing a specific
editor, who may be away from the office, the Site Editor email address is
circulated to all the editorial team.
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AlphaGalileo is the Internet-based press centre for European science,
engineering and technology. Our aim is to increase awareness of the
excitement and significance of European research amongst young people,
industry and tax-payers via the mass media. The financial support of the
UK and French governments, the Wellcome Trust, the Novartis Foundation
and some of the UK's Research Councils is gratefully acknowledged, as is
the encouragement the project is receiving from the British Association,
Euroscience and members of the European Union of Science Journalists
Associations.
You can find out more about the service and access all releases and event
details that are out of embargo without registration by visiting
http://www.alphagalileo.org.
Peter Green
Project Director
AlphaGalileo: the Internet press centre for European science, engineering
and technology
www.alphagalileo.org
peter.green @alphagalileo.org
44 1793 496200 (answer phone)
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