Planning Your Publication

Plan Your Print or Web Publication

Questions to Answer

Ask yourself these key questions whenever you're planning a communications project. A consultation with Media Services can help you find the right answers.

What are your project goals?
What do you want to accomplish as a result of your project? Is your goal to educate, inform, increase participation, report on progress, etc.?
Who is your audience?
Whom do you want to reach with your communications project? Describe your target audience in demographic and geographic detail.
What is the value of your project?
Why is your information needed? Will your project be the only source of the information? Is there evidence of a market for your information?
What is the best format for your project?
Is print or an electronic format the best way to reach your audience? How can you best communicate your content? A bulletin, fact sheet, pamphlet, CD-ROM, website, etc.? What quantity of your finished product is necessary to reach your audience?
What is your budget?
Distribution.
How do you see your project and its information reaching members of your target audience? What other options are available?
How will you measure your success?
What actions do you want your target audience to take as a result of your project? How will you be able to tell if you achieved your goal with your project?

Contact Marketing & Media Services

Contact MMS director Loc Hoang at lochoang@umd.edu or 301-405-2915, as early in your project as possible. He’ll assign to you a project team consisting of himself, an editor, and a designer. You and your team can discuss the purpose and scope of your project and your expectations.

The team can:

advise you about the best educational media to use for your purposes
suggest how to write for your intended audience offer design concepts
help you set up a budget and production schedule
provide cost estimates

Depending on the type of project, a marketing specialist or a writer may join the team. The team will guide you throughout the production process, from initial consultation to delivery of printed publication.

Peer Review

The official, numbered Extension publications subject to peer review are:

new publications
publications under revision
publications being reprinted or repeat purchased if they have not undergone review in the past 5 years (or were never included in the review process)

Manuscripts will undergo peer review by two experts in the subject matter of the publication.

Author provides unit head with 3 names (minimum of one internal and two external reviewers.) This may vary by subject area.
To add credibility and avoid the appearance of bias, the unit head makes the final selection of reviewers and sends the manuscript and a manuscript peer review form (pdf) to each reviewer. The form includes guidelines for the reviewers.
With the approval of an Extension Associate Director an "abbreviated" peer review may be used for information that’s created in response to an emergency.

Peer review begins after the author has completed or secured the following:

financial commitment from unit head;
a final draft;
all tables, figures, art;
all copyright permissions.

Informal publications—which aren’t considered official, numbered publications—aren’t required to undergo formal peer review. Make sure at least two faculty or staff members review your informal publication for grammar, spelling, and clarity of message.

Categories of Extension Publications

Extension Fact Sheets (FS)

Are the most common type of Extension literature.
Focus on a single specific topic.
Are generally for a lay audience; can be targeted to a limited/specific audience needing more specific/technical information.
Contain information based on research and subject to the approval process, including peer and editorial review.
Are, generally, written in a popular style with only limited use of technical terminology, tables, or graphs.
Contain appropriate graphics or illustrative material. Don’t contain literature citations except as a credit or acknowledgment.
Doesn't, usually, include bibliographies or lists of references; a list of sources of additional information is appropriate.
May have single or multiple authorship.
Are official, numbered Extension publications.

Extension Bulletins (EB)

Cover a more expanded topic than a fact sheet (FS).
Are more in-depth in focus and broader in scope than a typical FS.
Are generally for a lay audience. However, they can be targeted to a limited/specific audience needing more specific/technical information.
Contain information based on research and subject to the approval process, including peer and editorial review.
Are written in a style appropriate for the audience, which may be lay or specific.
Have, typically, a stronger research orientation than fact sheets and may be presented in a slightly more technical style.
Contain appropriate references and literature citations, but don’t contain formal review of literature.
Contain tables, graphs, and other illustrations suitable for the audience.
May, in some cases, be updated on a regular basis—yearly, every 2 years, etc.
May have single or multiple authorship.
Are official, numbered Extension publications.

Extension special reports

Examples: annual reports, correspondence courses.
Correspondence courses are subject to the approval process, including peer and editorial review.
Annual reports are not listed in the publications catalogue.

Extension Newsletters

Newsletters are directed toward a specific audience.
Contain timely and pertinent information and are published on a regular schedule.
Initiation of a newsletter should receive appropriate administrative approval, and usefulness should be periodically reviewed.
Individual issues of a newsletter need not go through the full materials approval process, but informal peer review is encouraged.
There are two categories of Extension newsletters—those meant for statewide distribution and those meant for countrywide distribution.
Statewide newsletters: editor, who is a specialist or educator, compiles articles from various authors. Editor approves articles for content prior to editorial and design.
Countywide newsletters: Generally produced entirely in local office; specialist provides content; newsletter reviewed by one or two others in the office for grammar and spelling.

Extension Information Sheets

For quick response to timely situations.
Two categories: statewide distribution and countywide/departmental distribution.
Statewide (for example, Home and Garden Info sheets): undergo peer review, are numbered publications
Countywide/departmental level: (for example, “Agronomy Update” and “Biological Resources Engineering Facts.”

Extension Handbooks (HB)

Examples: Pork Industry HB, Beef Cattle HB, Nutrient Management Learn and Earn, Master Gardener HB.
Can be series of lessons outlining step by step procedures, a compilation of fact sheets.
May be more in-depth and comprehensive than a bulletin.
Generally presented in 3-ring binder, which offers the flexibility of adding and subtracting information.
Official, numbered Extension publication.
[None have been produced in past several years.]

Miscellaneous Extension Publications (MEP)

Example: Pocket IPM Threshold Guide: Vegetable and Field Crops

4-H literature

Generally, we purchase out-of-state publications for 4-H.

For more information, contact Ginny Gerhart

Last updated: 03/29/2007