This blog post contains the following sections:

1. 1. Title
   2. Introduction
   3. Author list
   4. Writing style, language and tone
   5. ‘Stories’ behind the research
   6. Structure
   7. Length
   8. Article link
   9. Figures, images and videos
   10. Journal badges 
   11. References
   12. Editing your blog
   13. Examples

What is the ‘Behind the Paper’ channel?

The Research Communities by Springer Nature are a place for discussion and discovery. The Communities help you expand your networks and share the challenges and successes of your work — increasing your impact and visibility worldwide

‘Behind the Paper’ blog posts invite you to share a ‘behind the scenes’ look at your research paper. From here, you can explore aspects such as the challenges and successes of the research process, or share personal anecdotes and untold stories from your work, alongside implications for future research.

What makes a good ‘Behind the Paper’ blog post?

Title

Please add an appropriate title to your blog. You may want to use the title of your research paper, or something simpler. We recommend selecting a simplified or pithy title that stands out to readers who are browsing the Communities. 

You might consider using keywords of the original title of your paper, or language that invites the reader to learn more (e.g. a research question). 

Introduction

Beneath the title, you will find the strapline, or introduction – the brief summary of the blog. Please add one to two sentences (maximum) to succinctly summarize what has been done in your study. There is a limit of 50 words associated with the strapline.

Author list

The author list refers to the list of authors who contributed to the blog post. You can add contributors to the post when you are in the draft template mode (under the ‘Contributors’ tab). Either search for your contributor/s by name, if they already have created an account on the Communities, or type in their email address and invite them directly. 

Once the blog post has been published, all contributor names will appear beneath the title of the blog. It will also be linked to all contributors’ profiles.

Writing style, language and tone

Outstanding ‘Behind the Paper’ blogs are written clearly and concisely. They break down the research they describe to account for the fact that the Communities’ readers and members come from different backgrounds, including both scientific and non-scientific fields. 

We recommend avoiding scientific jargon, where possible, and explaining acronyms or abbreviations. We also encourage the use of a less formal, personal tone to describe your experience of undertaking the research and writing the article.

‘Stories’ behind the research

We encourage you to delve into the stories behind your research paper. For example: 

• What led you to pursue this study? How did you get involved in this research? Why is this research valuable?
• Was there anything unexpected or surprising that led into this work, or happened during this work? 
• What did you do? What was the research process like? Were you predominantly based in the lab, out in the field, or did you undertake computational and/or analytical work? Can you describe some of your experiences to our readers? 
• What are the broader implications of your study?

These are examples of the types of stories you may wish to include in your post. Please feel free to tell us more about yourself and the team involved in the work – we would love to hear about any collaboration or interdisciplinary work!  

Structure

A short introduction and conclusion are useful to provide context to your blog. However, the remaining sections may be less formally structured. You might want to place more emphasis on your findings and results, for example, and discuss your methodology in less detail. 

We have created a general guide to help you structure your ‘Behind the Paper’ blog below. These questions may be used as writing prompts, or you can create your own. It’s completely up to you how you choose to structure your blog – we  recommend that you keep it simple, consistent and appealing!

Why is the research valuable?

Please add three to four sentences giving some introduction and context to the work and why you feel it is important. What is the historical context? Is the paper addressing a specific question or solving a problem? If so, what is it and why is it of academic or societal importance? 

Keep in mind that you are trying to help academics in other disciplines appreciate the “big picture” significance of this research. 

[200 words]

What did the authors do?

What form did your investigation take? What experiments, observations, or analyses were performed, and why were they suited to the goals of the work? Here, you are trying to help the reader understand the rationale for the specific approach you have adopted.

What did the researchers find? What immediate conclusions can be drawn from these findings? 

[300 words]

What are the implications of this study?

The process of writing a blog may provide authors with the opportunity to clearly explain why their research findings are important. This is sometimes implied in the introduction or final sentences of a research paper, but here, you are encouraged to break down the significance of your study for the Community. 

Are there broader implications or applications of these findings? If so, what are they? What are the obvious limitations or caveats? What does this research not allow you to say?

What are the obvious next questions or steps to take this further? Are there aspects of the research that could be made stronger? Please make sure you are clear about what your findings show in the context of the wider literature — where do your results sit within the existing knowledge of your research field?

For example, if you are developing a new material for solar cells, how might it impact the future of clean energy? If you have obtained new images of a black hole in space, how might they be used to broaden our understanding of astronomy? 

[200 words]

Length

Although there is some flexibility with the word limit for each section, the blog post in its entirety should be a minimum of 500 words, and no more than 1000 words. 

Article link

Where your post relates to a specific piece of published research, we encourage you to use the ‘Article link’ feature, which can be found on the options bar when you are editing your blog draft and allows you to add a link to your research paper. 

You can check out the post on how to add a link to your paper for more information.

Figures, images and videos

Using figures and images, either from your original research article or from your own personal archive, is a great way to increase engagement with your blog post. We regularly source ‘behind the scenes’ images and videos for our social media accounts.

To ensure accessibility and inclusion, please include figure captions to describe your figures and/or audio-visual content, and add alternative text. We recommend using simplified elements of figures, where possible, as our audience on the Communities is diverse and is comprised of both scientific and non-scientific members.

We also highly recommend the use of a ‘poster’ image, as this will be seen from the Community homepage and increases the visibility of your blog. This feature can be added via the options bar in the draft template.  

Journal badges 

Journal badges allow you to tag the journal where your related research paper has been published. They also reflect your contributor status on the Community and are used to tag content related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They make it easier for readers to find and engage with your blog by grouping all the posts from the same journal together. 

When you are editing your blog post, you can select a ‘Journal’ corresponding to that in which your research was published. Only one journal badge should be selected.

More information on how to add a journal badge to your post can be found in the Help and Support channel.

References

References refer to articles of further reading and related content. Good citations and sourcing can also add credibility to your blog. Although it is not compulsory, you are most welcome to include links to references within the text of your blog or add a reference list at the end of your blog post in any style of your choosing. 

We advise a maximum of 10 references to be cited. 

Editing your blog

Should you need to, you can edit your blog after publishing it on the Communities. If you navigate to ‘Posts’ under your profile image, you can opt to ‘Edit’ your blog post.

Alternatively, click ‘Edit’ on your published blog in the top right-hand corner.

Examples

We highly recommend perusing previous ‘Behind the Paper’ blog posts on the Communities prior to starting your own blog draft. This will help you to understand and visualise what we look for in a blog post. You will find previous examples of blog posts in the ‘Behind the Paper’ channel (click ‘View Channel’) on each Community homepage (e.g. on the Neuroscience Community, pictured below, or the Earth & Environment Community). 

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For any questions or queries regarding ‘Behind the Paper’ blog posts, please contact the team.