Author Guidelines

DRNS Blogs

DRNS cannot publish every blog that is submitted, but to increase the chances of your blog being published, you are recommended to follow the basic guidance below.

  • Length. No more than 750 words. If you have more to say, consider splitting your blog into a series.
  • Title. Ensure there is a title for your blog which tempts the reader to read on.
  • Contact details. Make sure you include your details so we can get in touch with you about your blog.
  • Bio. Write a short summary of who you are and why you’ve written this blog. We’ll include this if we publish your blog.
  • Declaration of funding and associations. We will need to know about any financial relationships with funders or commercial entities related to you, or any products and processes you mention in your blog.
  • Be kind. Sometimes blogs include a call for action, but make sure you don’t write blogs which slander other organisations or people.
  • Style. Blogs are often less formal and more accessible. Think about your audience. Who do you hope will be reading your blog? What do they already know, and what do they want to know more about? What language do they use? Try not to use jargon or acronyms which aren’t widely understood. Do you have a key message you would like people to take away and is it clear? Does your blog have a start, middle, and end? Ask for advice from other people who have written blogs in the past, and ask them to read over your blog.
  • Copyright. You must check that your work does not infringe any copyright legislation. If you use references or quotes, be sure to add them.

Abstracts for conferences and events

It’s important to celebrate or promote your work by sharing it with other people. That way, we all know who is doing what in the field, and you can gain valuable input from people outside your normal networks.

DRNS sometimes run events where we are looking for teams or individuals to share their work with the people who attend them. If an event is running which offers an opportunity for you to take part, it will be advertised here, in our newsletter, and on Twitter.

At those times, we invite people to share short summaries of their proposed contribution to the event – an abstract. We’ve written this guidance because we want to encourage a wide range of people to present at our events and we realise that people who don’t work in academia don’t always write a lot of abstracts. We often receive more abstracts than we have space for people to talk, so to increase the chance that your abstract is accepted, you are recommended to follow the basic guidance below.

  • Length. 250-300 words
  • Title. Ensure there is a title for your abstract which is clear and descriptive of the work you want to present
  • Contact details. Make sure you include your details so we can get in touch with you. We will also need to know the names of the key people in your team. You’ll need to make sure that all the people you mention have read and approved your abstract
  • Declaration of funding and associations. We will need to know who funded the work you’ve done, and we will need to know about any financial relationships with commercial entities related to you, your team, or any products and processes described in the abstract
  • Relevance. Most events have a theme. Your contribution will need to fit in to that theme, so make that clear in your abstract
  • Impact. Contributions with potential to make a difference (impact) for the research community and society at large will be preferred over papers with lower impact
  • Clarity. The abstract should be clearly written and well structured. It should explain what you plan to talk or write about, and, if relevant, the methods you used and a summary of the findings if you have them. Try not to use jargon or acronyms which aren’t widely understood. In the future we will write a training guide about how to write an abstract, and if there is demand, we will run a training event, but in the meantime, we found this guide to writing a killer abstract on the internet. Why not have a look to see what you can find, or ask a colleague or friend who has submitted an abstract in the past (External resource: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/01/27/how-to-write-a-killer-conference-abstract/ )
  • Uniqueness. The work must convey relevant new knowledge to the audience
  • Copyright. You must check that your work does not infringe any copyright legislation
  • Deadline. Check the advert asking for abstracts. Ensure that your abstract is submitted by the deadline and check that you have submitted it through the right channels to the right person