The document provides dos and don'ts for public information officers (PIOs) when working with journalists. It advises PIOs to avoid calling journalists to check if they received press releases, pitching stories the journalist never covers, embargoing already published studies, asking journalists to uphold embargoes others may break, and sending embargoed material without agreement. PIOs should convince researchers to meet journalists' deadlines, learn the journalist's interests, send potentially interesting non-institutional stories, provide articles from non-embargoing journals, and advise researchers to avoid jargon.

1. Working with Journalists as a PIO:
Five Dos and Don’ts
Ivan Oransky, MD
Executive Editor, Reuters Health
Adjunct Asst. Professor,
New York University Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program
Blogger, Embargo Watch and Retraction Watch
National Association of Science Writers
New Haven, Connecticut
November 6, 2010

2. Don’t
1. Call to make sure I got your emailed press release

3. Don’t
1. Call to make sure I got your emailed press release
2. Pitch me stuff I never cover
In my case: basic science, facility openings, studies that
haven’t been published or presented at a reasonably
prestigious conference

4. Don’t
1. Call to make sure I got your emailed press release
2. Pitch me stuff I never cover
In my case: basic science, facility openings, studies that
haven’t been published or presented at a reasonably
prestigious conference
3. Embargo studies that are already published

5. Don’t
1. Call to make sure I got your emailed press release
2. Pitch me stuff I never cover
In my case: basic science, facility openings, studies that
haven’t been published or presented at a reasonably
prestigious conference
3. Embargo studies that are already published

6. Don’t
1. Call to make sure I got your emailed press release
2. Pitch me stuff I never cover
In my case: basic science, facility openings, studies that
haven’t been published or presented at a reasonably
prestigious conference
3. Embargo studies that are already published

7. Don’t
4. Ask me to agree to an embargo that you plan to let
someone else break

8. Don’t
4. Ask me to agree to an embargo that you plan to let
someone else break

9. Don’t
4. Ask me to agree to an embargo that you plan to let
someone else break

10. Don’t
5. Send embargoed material before I’ve agreed to any
embargo, then expect me to uphold it

11. Don’t
5. Send embargoed material before I’ve agreed to any
embargo, then expect me to uphold it

12. Do
1. Convince your researchers to return my staff’s phone
calls -- by deadline
2. Get to know what I’m interested in, by reading it, and
seeing what I do on Twitter
3. Send me stuff you think I’d be interested in that isn’t
from your institution
4. Send me stories from high-impact journals that don’t
embargo
5. Convince your researchers not to talk in jargon