What’s the story?: publicity, global media coverage and author experience

Article type
Authors
Pentesco-Gilbert D1, Stewart G1, Beal J1
1Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK
Abstract
Background: Reviews from The Cochrane Library, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews are often reported by newspaper and broadcast journalists, and bloggers. Press releases highlighting selected new and updated reviews are an important part of the publication process and marketing strategy for The Cochrane Library. Increasingly reviews are used as referential sources by media to help confirm what is known about a topic. Authors and editors of Cochrane reviews are involved in the authoring of the releases and media coverage.

Objectives: The objective of Wiley-Blackwell’s publicity strategy is to disseminate the findings of Cochrane reviews and raise the international profile of The Cochrane Library through professional and consumer media, and to increase usage.

Methods: A number of new and updated reviews are selected for publicity activity from the monthly issue publication of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. By analysing the resulting coverage, including a regional breakdown of where different reviews are reported, we can provide an interesting snapshot of the issues of interest to the international community. We also look for a corresponding increase in usage and citations for the articles that are most widely reported. Author feedback on their media experiences is collected post publication and will be summarized to identify opportunities to improve the quality of media stories and author satisfaction.

Results: An up-to- date analysis of international media coverage for the period January 2010 to June 2011 will be presented.

Conclusions: Media coverage of new and updated Cochrane reviews raises the international profile of The Cochrane Library in both professional and consumer media, and increases usage of Cochrane reviews. A review of the impact of monthly publication (introduced in January 2010) and increased use of social medial tools together with author experiences will help to inform future publicity approaches.