Major journals like Science, Nature and the Journal of the American Medical Association impose embargoes on papers they are about to publish. An embargo is a specific time and date before which a study may not be publicized. But journals with embargoes allow research institutions to send embargoed press releases to trusted reporters a few days to a week or more prior to the embargo expiring so that reporters have time to prepare stories.

For example, Science is published on Fridays. The journal’s embargo is 2 p.m. (ET) Thursday, the day before publication. Science allows universities to issue press releases on studies under embargo as early as Monday morning prior to publication. To do that, a press release must be drafted, edited and approved by Friday morning a full week before the study is published. This means Media Relations must know about a study at least two weeks prior to publication in order to have a press release ready on time.

Embargoes also are important because they provide a timely “hook” to news stories on studies so the stories can say the study “was published today in the journal X.” Most major media will not publish stories on studies after the online publication dates of those studies, which is why it is crucial to have press releases ready to issue at the time specified by the journal in question.

Many journals do not have formal embargoes. In those cases, it is best to issue press releases a week to a few days prior to a study’s online publication date so it is seen as new and timely by the media.