What is this blog about?

The UK Data Service’s Data Impact blog is a space where users of social, population and economic data, including that held by the UK Data Service, can discuss the impacts and benefits of such data. We encourage those who work with such data from a wide variety of backgrounds – academic; international, national and local government; think tanks, charities and foundations; communities and others – to contribute blog posts.

We aim to appeal to a wide range of readers in order to raise the profile of the high-quality social, population and economic data held by the UK Data Service and the impact it can have on society.

We are committed to providing an outlet for diverse voices working with or benefiting from social, population and economic data and welcome contributions from women or those from minority communities.

How can I contribute to the UK Data Service Data Impact blog?

Please get in touch by emailing ukdsimpact@jisc.ac.uk with an outline of your idea. In general, it’s better to approach us with a specific idea rather than an already-written piece as it will help us to work together to shape something which reflects what you want to share as well as being accessible to readers of the blog.

Once we’ve agreed a topic and timescale, please type your draft post in Microsoft Word or OpenDocument format or share a Google Doc with us.

When you submit a draft post to use, you acknowledge that we may need to edit it. This may include adding an introductory paragraph, shortening the post, splitting it into multiple posts and tweaking language to make the post more accessible.

We will always share the edited version with you before publishing to ensure that your work has not been misrepresented, but the editor will have the final say on the writing. If we cannot agree or you don’t approve of the changes we make, you will always retain the right to withdraw your article.

We publish articles under the Creative Commons Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 License, meaning it can be reshared with attribution but others do not have the right to remix your material.

Things to think about when writing for the Data Impact blog:

  • Don’t worry about the title – if you have something really eye-catching (especially if it’s a question!), feel free to share it, but it’s not essential
  • Start with your headline points in the first paragraph– many readers won’t read past the first paragraph, so this is your chance to hook them in (if you need examples, look at how newspaper articles – in print or online – are structured)
  • Keep all your paragraphs short, with no more than four or five sentences
  • It might help to think of your post as a story. You are taking readers on a journey through your discussion point, idea or findings, perhaps being challenged by problems en route or making a surprising discovery which moves you and your work forward
  • We encourage you to engage in discussion and debate – please avoid simply describing research you have undertaken, consider what is new or innovative about your approach or how your findings are making a difference in the world
  • Make your writing stand on its own, even if you’re referring to a longer paper or journal article. This is a new piece of writing, so try not to rely too much on external links
  • Be accessible – try to avoid jargon and technical language unless it’s essential (and if so, make sure you explain it). Aim for your writing to work for a wide range of readers.

If the article contains all the relevant information, well-presented, it might be as short as 500 words. It could equally be 1500 words or longer. In terms of keeping readers going to the end, accessibility is important. You may not need to include every piece of information or all parts of the process you went through.

How can I illustrate my point?

It’s worth remembering that high-quality images which tell a story or help illustrate a point help encourage readers, so think about what sort of images might best accompany your blog post. Bear in mind that a great image can also be useful when publicising your post on social media.

Please do include graphs, charts, figures, infographics or other materials to make your article clearer to understand.

We encourage you to provide these as separate files and with the original data in Excel, OpenDocument or csv format, so we can make this available separately for accessibility purposes.

Photos are also welcome. We use images with a Creative Commons licence, unless permission has been specifically granted. Please include attributions for any figures or photos you include.

How do I reference other materials?

The Data Impact blog uses links to other articles, reports, articles on the web etc. Please type or paste the link in brackets at the point in your post that you’d like us to link.

Please avoid linking to sites which require payment to access an article.

Can I talk about myself?

We want our readers to know that there is a person behind the words on the screen, so we encourage contributors to share a headshot with us for the start of the post and a short biography to go at the end.

Please also let us know any social media links you would like us to include in the post and/or in subsequent publicity.