Hit the ground running: finding the sources you need to report a science story

By Glennda Chui, with help from Bruce Lewenstein and the NASW-Teach mailing list

Whether your deadline for a story is three hours or three weeks away, get started as soon as possible. Important sources may be hard to reach; that one critical person may be on the verge of taking an extended trip to a remote tropical isle. Your reporting may take you in an entirely different direction than you had anticipated, necessitating more phone calls and research. Worse, it may reveal that your story is not worth doing, in which case you'll have to scramble for a new topic and start over.

Here are some tips:

1. Quick ways to find sources

• Scan the Internet. Look for people who have written reports on your topic, given talks, taught courses or written tutorials. Then use on-line directories to find their phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
• Look for previous research. Especially for medical research, but often any biological research, check the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database for citations to relevant research. Often you can find names and institutions of others working on related work.
• Mine the references. The introduction to a scientific paper often contains a general review and history of the topic at hand. Dig through the references from this section to find people who have written authoritative review articles; folks who did early, pioneering research; and/or people who have competing theories about whatever is going on. Even if the people cited in the references have relatively common names, it should not be difficult to track them down; how many Smiths or Nguyens are involved in orca research or brain wave scanning?
• Download reports. This should be an automatic part of your research routine; it can reveal all sorts of unexpected treasures. That said, always be careful about using stuff from the Internet; make sure it's from a legitimate source. And don't use it as a substitute for talking to people. The National Academy of Sciences may be a good source; it has put all its reports and publications on line for free access.
• Look up previous stories written on the topic and scan them for sources. Lexis-Nexis or a similar on-line reference service is invaluable; see what the local library offers. Don't neglect things like the Readers' Guide to Periodicals or the directory of associations, which lists groups devoted to everything from neurology to piranha husbandry (I made that last one up, but it's within the realm of possibility.)
• Call the PR offices of local research institutions (such as universities, research institutes, specialized labs, corporate R&D facilities), depending on the topic, and ask if they have experts. Or go directly to the relevant department, whether geology or public health; talk to the secretary or, better, to the department chair. Virtually every university and research institution now has an on-line directory.
• Do a Profnet inquiry. Register as a freelance writer, then tell Profnet your topic and time frame, and they will find you experts. Profnet also offers a database of experts, and you can sign up to receive story tips via e-mail.
• For very basic, non-cutting-edge background, try the Encyclopedia Brittanica and other reference books.

• Use every conceivable means. Don't wait until you've talked with one person to call the next; cast your net widely, and fast, to catch the greatest number and variety of fish.
• Some folks respond better to e-mails, some to phone calls. So do both. When e-mailing, tell them you'd like to set up a time for an interview in person or on the phone, whichever applies; that way you don't get caught in phone-tag hell.
• If someone doesn't respond, leave another round of messages. The timing for this depends on your deadline; you may wait an hour, if your story is due that day, or a few days if the deadline is longer. But don't wait indefinitely for the source to call you back.
• Call the PR person. If there has been a press release on your story, call the PR person and ask if they can help you track the source down. They're usually quite helpful.
• Call the department. You can also call the department your source works in and ask if he's in town, what his schedule is like, whether he keeps office hours (always a good time to catch someone).
• Call 411. If all else fails, try directory assistance -- either on-line or on the phone -- and see if you can get the source's home number. You'd be surprised how many people are listed.
• Track them down. If the source is giving a talk or otherwise putting in an appearance locally, show up and buttonhole him afterward and ask for an interview.
• If someone calls you back after your first draft of a story is written, talk with them anyway if you have the time. The information they give you can be plowed into your next draft and may enrich it substantially. And they could tip you off to new story possibilities. Remember: every call is a chance to cultivate a source.
• If you don't have time to talk, thank them for returning your call and explain that your story is already finished. And again remember: every call is a chance to cultivate a source, so treat them politely.

• Try Medscape or other online databases for medical papers. See if your local library subscribes to Science, Nature or other journals online. Use the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database to find citations to articles; often there will be a link to the full text.
• Ask the author. If it's too recent to show up in the library, ask one of the authors, or someone in her office, to send you a copy by fax or e-mail. Call the PR person and see if they have a copy. If all else fails, do an Internet search for the journal, call the editorial offices, explain that you're a reporter working on a story and ask them to fax you a copy of the article. Most are happy to oblige.
• Share what you've got. Once you have the article in hand, offer to fax or e-mail it to any sources you would like to have comment on it.

About the author: Glennda Chui has been a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News since 1984, and has covered all aspects of science for the paper since 1986. She has a bachelor's degree in biological science and a master's degree in journalism. She was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT in 1988-89, is a past president of the Northern California Science Writers' Association, and teaches in the Science Communication Program at UC-Santa Cruz. Her honors include a staff Pulitizer Prize for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1990.