Check Upcoming Themes at http://www.nih.gov/news/research_matters/secure/NIHNiHTopics.html or
contact the editor (information below). Stories are due a month in advance
of publication date, on the first day of the preceding month.
Writing the Story:
- Write clearly. NIH News in Health is written for people
with little or no science backgrounds. Don't use jargon or technical
terms unless there’s no other possibility, and then define the terms
clearly. Also, be aware of people's sensitivities, e.g., don't use
terms like diabetics or asthmatics; they are people first, so use “people
with diabetes.”
- Cover stories should be 1,000-1,100 words, including all side boxes;
inside features 500-600 words; Health Capsules 200-250 words.
- Submit side boxes with features. One, called Wise Choices,
should contain practical health tips. Define difficult terms in a separate Definitions section.
Also include content for Statistics and Questions for
your Doctor boxes, if appropriate.
- List supporting web sites or other resources that NIH offers on
the topic, and how people can obtain them. Note if the resources are
available in other languages, too.
- For Health Capsules, don’t put any journal references to
the papers you are writing about in the story itself, but please let
the editor know.
- Include your title with your name, if appropriate (M.D., Ph.D.,
etc).
Style specifics:
- Identify ICs as “NIH’s [Institute] (abbreviation)” the first time,
then just use the abbreviation.
- Identify people’s titles the first time you refer to them (Dr. [name]),
then just use their last name.
- List organization affiliations for people, but not the towns where
they are unless it’s integral to the organization’s name. For example,
write “University of California at San Francisco” because there are
several separate schools in the UC system, but not “Howard University
in Washington, DC.”
- Shorten long terms that will be used frequently in an article, if
possible, using quotes for the first shortened use. For example: Endometriosis,
or “endo” for short….
Don’t hesitate to contact the editor with any questions:
Harrison Wein, Ph.D., Writer/Editor
National Institutes of Health
Office of the Director, Office of Communications and Public Liaison
Bldg. 31, Rm. 5B38C, MSC 2090
Bethesda, MD 20892-2090
Phone: 301-435-7489
Fax: 301-496-0019
E-mail: weinh@od.nih.gov
This page was last reviewed on
February 11, 2008
.
