How to Write a LinkedIn Post About Your Paper (With Templates)
Three fill-in templates for a LinkedIn post about your research paper: finding-first, question-first and story-first, each with a worked example. You also get what to attach, how to credit co-authors, and the mistakes that make a post easy to scroll past.
The paper is out. You open LinkedIn, type "I am pleased to share that our paper has been published in", paste the link, and stop. You know nobody outside your lab will read past the first line, and you are not sure what else to say.
A good post about a paper is not about the publication. It is about the one thing a reader should remember, said in words they already use. Below are three templates that do that, each with a worked example, plus what to attach and what to leave out.
Before You Write: Three Decisions
Make these three choices first. The templates are easy once they are made.
- Who is it for? Pick one reader: a practitioner in your field, a hiring manager, a journalist, a colleague in the next discipline over. Write for that one person.
- What is the one finding? One sentence, no hedging stack, no method names. If you need two sentences, you have two posts.
- What will they see? Decide on the figure, infographic or short video before you write. The visual shapes what the text needs to say, and the text should not repeat it.
Two platform details are worth knowing at the time of writing (October 2026). LinkedIn's help page on posting says a post can contain up to 3,000 characters, and you can save a draft or schedule it. Its page on post visibility says you cannot change who can see a post after you share it, and that a post set to Anyone is visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn. Choose Anyone before you press Post if you want people outside your network to see it.
Template 1: Finding-First
Use this when your result is a clear, quotable number or comparison. It suits CS, AI and ML papers well, where the reader wants to know what improved and by how much.
[The finding in one plain sentence, with the number.]
[Why it matters to the reader, in one or two sentences.]
[How you found it, in one sentence a non-specialist can follow.]
[One honest limitation.]
[Credit: co-authors, lab, funder.] Paper (open access / preprint): [link]
Worked example
Say you have a machine learning paper on detecting label errors in medical imaging datasets. The numbers here are invented for illustration.
About 1 in 20 labels in the public chest X-ray dataset we audited were wrong, and a model trained on the cleaned version made fewer errors on hospital data it had never seen.
If you build or buy models trained on public datasets, the labels may be a bigger risk than the architecture.
We flagged likely errors with a second model, then had two radiologists review every flagged image.
We checked one dataset and one task, so the rate will differ elsewhere.
With Priya, Tom and Ana, and the radiology team at our partner hospital. Paper (open access): [link]
Template 2: Question-First
Use this when your work answers a practical question your reader already has. It suits life sciences and medicine, where clinicians, patients and industry readers come with a question, not a field.
[The question, the way your reader would ask it?]
[Your short answer.]
[What you did to find out, in one or two sentences.]
[What it means in practice, and what it does not mean.]
[Credit.] The full paper: [link]
Worked example
Does it matter what time of day people take their blood pressure tablets?
In our trial, for most patients, not very much.
We randomly assigned adults to morning or evening dosing and followed them for a year.
If a fixed time helps you remember your tablet, keep it. If you were told evening is better, our results do not support switching for that reason alone. Talk to your doctor before changing anything.
With the trial team at [institution]. The full paper: [link]
That example is hypothetical too. With clinical work, keep the practical advice inside what your results actually show, and point people to their clinician.
Template 3: Story-First
Use this when the project had a turning point: a surprising null, a dataset that took years, a community that shaped the question. It suits social sciences and psychology, where how the question was asked is part of the result.
[The moment the project started, or the moment it changed, in one or two sentences.]
[What you expected.]
[What you found instead.]
[Who this matters to, and why.]
[Credit, including partners and participants where appropriate.] Paper: [link]
Worked example
Three years ago a youth worker told us our survey was asking the wrong question. Teenagers were not lonely after school; they were lonely at lunch.
We expected after-school programs to matter most.
When we redesigned the study with the young people themselves, lunchtime was where isolation showed up most clearly.
For schools, that is the cheapest hour of the day to change.
With [co-authors] and the youth advisory group at [partner]. Paper: [link]
Again hypothetical, and the anecdote must be true in your version. Never invent the moment.
What to Attach
Attach one visual that carries the finding on its own, so it still works for someone who only glances at it.
- An image. A key figure redrawn for a phone screen, or a one-page infographic. LinkedIn's photo sharing help says, at the time of writing (October 2026), that you can upload up to 20 images to a post, tag members or organizations on them, and add alternative text for people using screen readers. Write the alt text; it takes a minute.
- A short video. A vertical clip of you, or an animated summary, explaining the one finding. LinkedIn's video requirements at the time of writing allow videos from 3 seconds (desktop upload) to 15 minutes, and recommend keeping text and logos away from the edges of the frame so the interface does not cover them.
- The link. Point to the paper of record or its open version, not a paywalled landing page with no abstract if you can avoid it. The same photo help page says you can share either a URL link or an image in a post, but not both at the same time, and that for URL links LinkedIn creates a preview image from the site being shared. Decide whether your own visual or the link preview should carry the post.
If you use an AI tool to help draft the post, LinkedIn's guidance on AI-assisted content says, at the time of writing (October 2026), that content should still reflect your own voice, perspective and experience, that you should review and edit it, and that you are responsible for what you post. It also recommends letting people know if you relied heavily on AI. Our post on using ChatGPT to promote your paper covers where a chatbot helps and where it does not.
Credit People Properly
Name your co-authors in the post, and say what they did if you can ("Priya built the audit pipeline"). Ask before you post if anyone is sensitive about how the finding is described. Thank your funder if your award terms ask you to acknowledge them, and check your publisher's sharing policy before you attach the PDF itself.
What to Avoid
- Opening with the announcement. "Delighted to share" is the line everyone scrolls past. Open with the finding, the question or the moment instead.
- The title as the post. Your paper title was written for reviewers.
- Overclaiming. Leave out "first", "breakthrough" and "proves" unless the paper says so, and keep one limitation in.
- A hashtag wall. Two or three that your field actually follows are plenty.
- Posting once. Plan a second post a few weeks later with a different angle: the figure, a question someone asked, a talk. Our 30-day plan for promoting a paper shows how to space them.
Where Amplify Fits
The hard part of a good post is often the attachment: a visual that carries the finding, and a short video people will actually watch. Amplify makes both from one paper, along with two other formats. You get a 45 to 60 second vertical short (9:16) for LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube Shorts and conference screens, a one-page print-ready infographic, a video abstract of about 3 minutes, and an audio brief in English with 21 more languages on request.
They are generated from the PDF you upload and nothing else, and each one carries the title, the authors and a link back to the paper of record, so the credit travels with the clip. Each format arrives as three variants you can edit line by line, a person reviews every format before it is released, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
One Finding, One Reader, One Visual
A LinkedIn post will not replace the paper, and it does not need to. It needs to make one reader stop, understand one finding, and click through. Pick your template, write it for one person, attach something they can see, and post again in a few weeks.
Quick answers
How long can a LinkedIn post about my research paper be?
At the time of writing (October 2026), LinkedIn's help pages say a post can contain up to 3,000 characters. You rarely need that much: a post about a paper needs one finding, why it matters, one honest limitation, the people who did the work, and a link to the paper of record.
What is the best way to start a LinkedIn post about a research paper?
Start with the finding, a question your reader already has, or the moment the project began, never with "I am pleased to share". Those three openings are the finding-first, question-first and story-first templates. Pick the one that suits your result: finding-first for a clear number, question-first for a practical question, story-first for a project with a turning point.
Should I tag my co-authors in a LinkedIn post about our paper?
Yes, credit co-authors by name in the post, and if you attach an image you can also use LinkedIn's Tag option to tag members or organizations. Name what each person did where you can, ask before you post if anyone is sensitive about how the finding is described, and thank the funder if your award terms ask you to acknowledge it.
Should I add an image or video to a LinkedIn post about my paper?
Yes, attach one visual that carries the finding: a figure redrawn for a small screen, a one-page infographic or a short vertical video. At the time of writing (October 2026), LinkedIn lets you upload up to 20 images to a post and add alternative text to each one, and accepts videos from 3 seconds to 15 minutes when uploaded from desktop.
