BLOG

ClimateChange Matters

About this blog

Researchers internationally continually produce quality research used to influence climate change policy and practice across community, government and the business sector. 

We are very good at talking about all of our research and sharing opinions about climate change and sustainability issues among ourselves, often in language that is impenetrable by anyone who is not an academic. 

This GCCW blog is our first joint effort to reach out and talk directly to you about our work and our opinions. 

We want government, educational leaders, members of communities, politicians, journalists and anyone who is interested in climate change today, to read this blog and give us feedback. 

We will be delighted if you leave a comment* or share our posts with your social media networks. 

*Subscription to this blog is FREE* 

ClimateChange Matters is on Twitter @GCCW 

Please note that the views expressed on this blog are not necessarily the official views of the Global Climate Change Week organising committee. 

The GCCW encourages and supports the community to develop as public intellectuals, and recognises the importance of academic freedom. 

* Please be aware we do not publish links within comments or replies from readers. 

Notes for contributors

We welcome articles of around 1000 words (there is no strict limit) from researchers* who have an affiliation to an accredited university or college, that are: 

  • opinion pieces 

  • responses to policies 

  • short reports on your research 

  • an anecdote about an exciting moment/epiphany/encounter you have experienced in your work as a researcher 

  • short summaries of your publications 

*Please note we only take submissions from researchers who have an affiliation with a university. Authors should submit a short bio and head shot with their post. 

During 2023, we are particularly keen to see contributions about the nexus between climate and connections for change. 

Prospective contributors should ensure their contributions:

  • avoid jargon and dense language 

  • replace all academic referencing with links 

  • provide links to sources where possible 

  • use inclusive and non-derogatory language 

We accept co-authored posts. 

Our intended audience is the broad community. It includes leaders, members of diverse communities, journalists and politicians.  
In the age of impact and engagement, our blog is very effective at disseminating research. This is particularly so because Altmetric is now monitoring and tracking engagement of any linked publications (with a DOI) from this blog. (More about Altmetric below.) 

Journalistic tips for new bloggers 

There is no right way to write a blog post. However, a good post will immediately grab a reader’s interest and, at the same time, tell a reader what the blogger is posting about. 

Blogs are personal so don’t be afraid to use first person (that is, use ‘I’ and ‘we’ when talking about your work). 

Opinion writers are more effective if they hit out with their main comment in the first paragraph. Whether readers agree or not they will read on to see how well the opinion is justified. 

Academic writers usually leave the best bits and strongest wording for conclusions. Bloggers usually do the opposite. Think about the most interesting part of your research, the most compelling argument for your comment piece and start with that. 

More about Altmetric 

ClimateChange Matters is working with Altmetric which tracks a range of publication sources to monitor and report on the attention they receive. For example, Altmetric has begun tracking the ClimateChange Matters blog. This means that any mention of a research output (e.g. journal article or book – which has an identifier like a DOI or ISBN in the mention) included in an ClimateChange Matters blog will be picked up by Altmetric. Then, if the blog is mentioned (with a link) on social media such as Twitter or Facebook, it will also be captured by Altmetric. 

So for example, if you publish a journal article and you write a ClimateChange Matters blog on this article (including a link), this will contribute to the Altmetric score for the article. Similarly, if someone tweets about the article, which might be talked about on the blog, it will be picked up by Altmetric. 

Ensuring research linked in a ClimateChange Matters Blog is captured by Altmetric 

If you blog about research, the best way to make sure that your post gets picked up by Altmetric is to include a direct link to scholarly publications. You can include a link to publications in a variety of different formats including direct links via DOI, the publisher site, or even the repository. For example: 

 
ClimateChange Matters is edited by Kim Beasy on behalf of the GCCW Organising Committee 

Please submit contributions, along with a short bio, profile photo, your Twitter and your LinkedIn account to gccw@utas.edu.au or contact Kim if you would like to discuss an idea.