Whether the thought of discussing your work with journalists fills you with fear or makes you jump for joy, the Nature Publishing Group press office aims to minimize the hassle factor for authors that can be involved with managing the media. The press office is run by me, Ruth Francis, with my colleagues Rachel Twinn, Jen Middleton and Neda Afsarmanesh.

We aim to keep our authors, and their own external relations offices, up to date with details such as publication date, embargo time and when we'll put information out to science journalists. We contact the corresponding author of an accepted paper by email around ten days before the publication date, to allow time to alert your own institution's or funding body's public affairs office.

If we are summarizing a paper on our press release we will email the entry to authors in advance so they are up to speed with what journalists have in front of them. The press release is sent out by email to about 3,000 science journalists and media organizations about a week before publication of the paper, so authors can expect their phones to start ringing from that time.

Our press releases are very short (around 200-word) summaries of selected papers; we advise and encourage journalists to look at the full papers which we make available ahead of publication via a password-protected website. We do not hype papers but stick to scientifically accurate relaying of information.

How can you, our authors, help us? Please let us know which coauthor is taking on the role of communicating with the media. We add contact details of the corresponding author to the press release unless we are advised otherwise by you. Talk to your institution's public affairs office as soon as your paper is accepted for publication; we do inform them of the paper's publication date, but it helps them if you're in direct contact and they know how best to handle media or other enquiries.

If you have any images you think may be of interest or provide good support for the paper we can make them available on the press site too, provided we have your permission and copyright information — illustrations can increase the likelihood of a journalist deciding to cover your paper.  We also produce a popular podcast, featuring author interviews, and can provide video streams and other multimedia features. We welcome suggestions from authors whose papers have been accepted for publication who have suitable material and who wish to contribute to these projects to increase the impact and reach of their research among the public.

Authors whose manuscripts have been accepted for publication can contact the press office, which deals with the press on behalf of all NPG journal authors, by email at press@nature.com.

Ruth Francis

Head of Press, Nature Publishing Group.