Guidelines for Communicating Scientific News at IIBM

From the Scientific Communication and Culture Unit (UCCC), we encourage you to share any news related to scientific publications, the awarding of relevant projects, prizes, etc. We must all recognize the importance of this task in increasing the visibility of IIBM and our work.
The purpose of this section is to establish basic guidelines to facilitate the communication of scientific milestones, which will be published on the IIBM website under the IIBM and Society - News tab.
The news article follows a format similar to a press release. The writing should be rigorous, engaging, and accessible to the general public, avoiding technical jargon so it reaches a non-specialized audience. The text is written by the person wishing to communicate the news, and the UCCC will provide guidance, corrections, and edits before its final publication on the website.

Writing the News Article
The news should be written in Word format, in both Spanish and English, and should include the following:
* Title: It should be very short, especially if the news is to be featured in the IIBM website carousel, so it does not take up the entire image (refer to the titles of previously published news articles).
* Highlights: Not mandatory. These are typically one or two short paragraphs of 2 to 4 lines each, summarizing the key points of the news. They are placed directly below the title.
* Text: The length is at the discretion of the author, depending on the information to be communicated. However, shorter is better. We emphasize that technical terms and unexplained abbreviations should be avoided. If possible, include hyperlinks to external institutions mentioned in the text so they can be accessed with a single click.

Illustrative Image: Highly Important
To make the news article more visually appealing, an image (or multiple images) should be included. The cover image must be high quality, in JPG format, and horizontal, especially if the article is to be featured in the IIBM website carousel.
Images can include photographs of laboratory experiments, microscope images, research teams working in their labs, the first author of the publication, or the award recipient, among others. Cover and carousel images must be in horizontal format, JPG, and have dimensions of 2000 pixels width × 1000 pixels height. (I usually prepare them using GIMP, where I crop the image and then scale it to a maximum of 2000×1000 pixels).
Additional images may be included within the text, and these do not require the same size specifications as the cover image. However, I usually scale them to ensure they are not too large. Photos of experiments, research groups, etc., should include a caption briefly describing the content in one or two lines.
Please send the images separately along with the Word document (containing the news in both Spanish and English) to comunicacion@iib.uam.es.

Publication of the News on X (Twitter) and Bluesky (BS)
Whenever a news article is published on the IIBM website, it will also be announced on X: @IIBmCSICUAM and Bluesky: @iibm-csic-uam.bsky.social.
To maximize the news article’s reach on social media, please provide your social media accounts and those of the individuals or institutions you wish to mention.

If you have any questions before, during, or after preparing the news, please do not hesitate to contact the UCCC via the email address provided above.

Publication of News on the CSIC Website, Agencia EFE, Agencia Sinc, Madri+d, etc.
The UCCC will ensure that highly relevant news, such as a scientific publication in a high-impact journal, the awarding of an international project, etc., is published in other media to maximize the dissemination of the scientific milestone.
To facilitate this, the UCCC must be informed before the article’s embargo is lifted to coordinate its publication accordingly.
Publication of News on the Website of the UAM Scientific Culture Unit (UCCUAM)
Scientific news articles published on our website will also be sent to UCCUAM for publication on their  Noticias Científicas page.