Increasingly academia is asking for impact from research. One metric being used is the dissemination of your journal article.
Disseminating your research to a wider audience also helps build you and your team up as experts in the field. This can lead to collaborations, a larger research team, increased funding, and industry partnerships.
In this article, I list thirteen ways that you can disseminate your journal article to build your authority and impact.
While this list is acceptable by most journal standards, be sure to check the restrictions of your journal article as disciplines and individual journal articles differ in their restrictions.
1. Write a summary of the article in a blog post.
The general public doesn’t read academic journals but they do love a good blog post. Turn your academic language into layman’s terms and you will exponentially increase the reach of your research. This could be on your own personal academic website, or on an open platform such as Medium. Don’t forget to link to the full-text journal article on the publisher’s website.
2. Share a link to your blog post summary on your social media accounts.
Twitter and LinkedIn are going to be the most common platform to share a link to your summary as they have a larger academic audience and clickable links. But, Instagram is also one of my favourite platforms for academics.
3. Create a video abstract for your article
Increasingly journals are encouraging the creation of a video abstract. While it does take a little more effort than a written abstract, the return on your time investment is worth it because video is highly engaging. Add the video abstract to your submission on the journal website.
4. Share your video abstract on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn
Video is gold on social media right now and will really set you apart from your peers. Make sure you check that it is okay to share the abstract if you have uploaded it as part of your journal final submission. If it is restricted you can always record a slightly different version to share.
5. Tweet key findings and quotes with a link to the article
Give people a reason to read your article. Share key findings and interesting quotes from your article. If you are creative you could easily create quote graphics in Canva or Adobe.
6. Create an infographic about your research
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Infographics are the most linked to content on the web. Add the infographic to your blog post on your personal academic website and share on social media (especially visual platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram)
7. Share your conference presentation slides on slide share
Want a little more longevity to all that work you put into creating your slide deck for the conference? Upload them to slide share.
8. Share your conference presentation on your blog
You can upload them just as slides or record a voice-over presentation in PowerPoint and save as a video or get really fancy and record with Loom so we can see your passionate face while you present.
9. Reach out to university publications and get yourself featured
University publications love featuring faculty, and students. They will likely bite your hand off to learn about your research and the chance to tell your story.
10. Local/national news outlets.
Radio, TV, newspapers are also always on the lookout for stories. Reach out and let them know about your research findings and ask about being featured. The smaller the outlet the more chance of being featured but if you research a hot topic reach for as large an outlet as possible.
11. Present at industry events.
The key here is to use your network and let anyone and everyone know you are open to presenting. I was once invited to talk to a group of wastewater professionals about marketing. It all counts my friends.
12. Podcast guest or host your own
Podcasts are hot right now. Being a podcast guest is super easy. The host will do all the hard work and often sent you the questions they will ask before hand so that you can prepare.
13. Host your own podcast
A little more work is hosting your own podcast but today it is relatively cheap and easy to start a podcast. The advantage, you get to talk about your research in every episode if you so choose. Being a podcast host is also a fantastic way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.
