Middlesex Minds blogging guidelines

Thank you for your interest in writing for mdxminds.com – the digital space where academics and researchers at Middlesex University can give their informed opinion on the most pressing issues of the day and share updates from their pioneering research projects.

What to think about if you want to write a blog:

• The best blogs start a debate or conversation going. You can do this by asking a single thought-provoking question to make someone stop and think

• Blogs are written in the first person – your views, not necessarily the University’s.

• The language you use is really important. While this is a platform for academic expert opinion we want it to be accessible to everyone, imagine you’re writing for a friend not a journal. So please use simple language in lay person terms.

• Use hyperlinks instead of footnotes or academic references and keep these references to a minimum

• A blog can be any length from around 800 to 1,200 words. The most important thing is that you ask and answer a single question – rather than try to tackle several things

• Your blog should relate back to our university themes of inclusive enterprise and creativity, sustainable development and health and wellbeing. You don’t need to mention them specifically but our themes should underpin our communications.

• The Conversation is the ideal model to follow. Their blogs are topical, easy to understand and make people think. The Conversation’s T&Cs also enable us to copy their articles verbatim onto mdxminds.com, so if you’ve written for it, please let us know.

 When it’s not a blog:

• A summary of research findings
• Literature review
• Report on event or conference

Finding your topic:

Answer a question related to a topical story in the news that your research or practice can help to answer, for example Professor Balbir Barn’s recent blog on ChatGPT.

Or answer a question that has come out of your research or practice that would be interesting to people outside your discipline, for example Roger Kline’s blog on bullying in healthcare.

It’s a good idea to take time to read previous and recent blogs to understand the style and types of content,

We are particularly keen on reactive blogs to current topical new stories and debates. In such time dependent cases, we need copy as soon as possible.

Submissions:

• Please contact pressoffice@mdx.ac.uk if you’d like to write a piece, with a brief outline of what you intend to write.
• The PR team may approach you if there is something topical they feel you’d be best placed to comment on.
• Don’t include imagery, unless you own the copyright – we can source stock images and would welcome your suggestions.

Promotion:

• We promote all blog posts via @mdxuninews and, if appropriate, across MDX corporate social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn). Please RT and share our tweets from your own accounts.
• The most recent blog posts are featured on the home page carousels, sorted by category.

Navigating MDX Minds:

Visitors to the blog can search by subject area or author name, or choose categories of interest from the word cloud. Comments are by approval – we will alert you when someone comments on one of your blogs, enabling you to respond.  There are some T&Cs to writing blogs for MDX Minds – you can read them here.

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