News releases about doctoral theses
Doctoral theses of significant public interest may be featured in press releases or news articles on ki.se. Here, we have compiled information on how you can disseminate information about your thesis via, for example, KI's news site or by contacting journalists.
Unfortunately, not all doctoral students at KI can receive assistance from the Communications and Public Relations Office (Comms Office) with press releases, news articles, or sharing on social media about their doctoral theses. However, we strive to give as many students as possible the opportunity to reach a wider audience.
One option is to contact the main web editor at your department to see if they can help you create a simple news item or interview in connection with your public defence, in addition to posting the event in the KI calendar.
As a doctoral student, you are always free to talk to journalists about your research and share information via your own social media accounts, blogs, or similar platforms. However, it is a good idea to check with your main supervisor before communicating.
Getting in touch
Contact the Comms Office immediately after your thesis has been finalised and no later than a couple of weeks before the public defence. Email both the press office at pressinfo@ki.se and our Swedish popular science magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap at medicinskvetenskap@ki.se.
The email should contain the following:
- Title of the thesis, date of the defence and link to the thesis in the KI Open Archive.
- A few sentences describing the content of your thesis and why the results are important to disseminate to the public or a specific target group outside the research community. Feel free to paste the popular science summary from your thesis into the email.
- Your name, department at KI and any other affiliations, email address and telephone number.
- Any preferences regarding specific geographical areas in the country or internationally where you would like your thesis to be disseminated.
- Information about scientific illustrations or other image material that can be used in communication, please attach.
- Cc your main supervisor in the email so that we know that they have been informed.
How we select the theses we highlight
News evaluation is not an exact science, and the research news editors at the Comms Office weigh various aspects together in their assessment:
- The thesis has been finalised and is available in KI Open Archive. The defence date has been set and is at least a few weeks away.
- The thesis addresses a topic that is of interest to a broader audience or aligns thematically with another communication initiative planned by the Comms Office.
- There are appealing and educational illustrations that can complement the news text.
- The articles in the thesis are thematically coherent, allowing for a comprehensive description of the doctoral work without focusing excessively on a single article. This is particularly important if several articles are unpublished or published in lower-ranked journals in their respective fields.
- If we have already communicated about one of the studies in your thesis, it is unlikely that we will issue a news item or press release in connection with the public defence. For us to do so, the news angle must be entirely different.
Collaboration with other organisations
For a medical university such as KI, educating new researchers is a core activity and of great importance to our brand. Press releases about doctoral theses presented at KI, but where the doctoral student is employed by another academic organisation, authority, hospital, or company, should therefore be issued by the KI Comms Office. We are generous in naming the collaboration partner in the text.
A partner organisation can send a simple news tip to selected journalists, provided that it is clear where the doctoral education has taken place, and that the activity has been approved by the KI Comms Office. A partner can of course also publish news about the thesis on their own website or in a staff magazine.
Advice to department web editors
Departments are most welcome to publish news articles about doctoral theses presented by their students. However, to avoid duplication of work, it is a good idea to check with the doctoral student to see if they have already been in contact with anyone at the KI Comms Office regarding news about their thesis. If so, please coordinate before you start working.
Then do the following:
- Ask the doctoral student for a short popular science summary. Feel free to use the questionnaire for research news provided by the Comms Office. If you find the text difficult to understand, it is probably unnecessarily complicated; ask the researcher to explain and simplify it.
- Write the news item so that it fits into a context outside your own department's website. KI's news site is open to everyone, and news items are often streamed to other web pages than your own.
- Also remember to distinguish the news item from the calendar event in terms of form and content. Both are published on the news.ki.se website but have completely different purposes. Feel free to link the pages if the news item is published before the defence.
- An easy way to share new research results is to write the news item as a Q&A, after a short summary and a catchy headline
- You can also use our guide to write research news with the help of AI.
- Avoid writing the entire title of the thesis in the headline and/or lead. Instead, tell the story about the thesis's most important findings.
- The title of the thesis and a link to its page in KI Open Archive should be placed at the bottom of the news item under a linked h2 heading labelled ‘Doctoral thesis’.
Contact
The press office
Phone:+46 (0)8-524 860 77 | Email: pressinfo@ki.se
Opening hours: The press office is staffed 09:00-17:00 CET on weekdays. The press office is closed during major holidays, such as Christmas, Easter and Midsummer, and opening hour may be limited during the Swedish summer vacation period.