Blog Guidelines

We welcome occasional blog posts from guest bloggers. We do not pay for posts, but we are happy to consider a blog post on a pertinent mental heath topic.

This guide has been written to make writing blogs for Mental Health Research UK as easy as possible! If you have any questions that are not covered here, please email trustees@mentalhealthresearchuk.org.uk

Audience

Consider your audience when writing for Mental Health Research UK. The blog may be read by our supporters who raise funds for us - some of them have been supporters for many years. Other audiences may be recipients of our PhD scholarships and their supervisors as well as people who find us online because they have an interest in mental health.

A blog post can be an opinion piece, or give information that is likely to be of interest.

Language and tone

Use an informal, conversational tone and share your personal views, where appropriate. It is important to engage people.

Keep the language plain and simple, avoiding jargon. If you need to use technical terms, please explain them. Always expand on acronyms the first time you use them.

Length and structure

500 words is about right, but don't feel bound by this. Sometimes a shorter blog post will get a message over clearly.

Try to use short sentences and paragraphs, too. This makes your writing easy to read and digest.

Consider breaking up your blog post with sub-headings or numbers.

Reviewing a paper

If you're reviewing a paper, it's a good idea to summarise the methods and key findings, as well as providing some critical appraisal of the paper.

Link to the work you're reviewing so people can read it if they want to.

Engage people

Ask questions in the blog post, inviting readers to connect with you to discuss the topic.

Use an engaging title for the blog post to grab people's attention.

Use hyperlinks

If you're referencing papers, events, organisations, studies or other content online, use a hyperlink so the reader can click through to find out more.

Using your name

Our standard practice will be to use your name on the blog posts that we publish online.

Publishing on the website

Please send your blog post to trustees@mentalhealthresearchuk.org.uk

We may edit your blog post, usually for typos, or ease of reading. We also might edit your blog post to ensure it fits with MHRUK's identity, remit and key messages. We will never publish a blog post without your sign-off on the final version.

We reserve the right to not publish a blog post if it doesn't comply with MHRUK's core values, for example if it is inappropriate or inaccessible.

If you can, please include a relevant photo as this makes blog posts much more engaging, especially when shared on social media.

Publishing elsewhere

If you have your own blog or website you are free to publish the post there. Please link back to Mental Health Research UK if you do so.