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Your research is finally ready to be published in a reputable journal? Congratulations! You worked so hard on it and invested a lot of time to come to this step. Let’s not forget that the research publication is not the end of the process, but the beginning of another. Did you know that global scientific output doubles every nine years? That means that many published papers will never even be read, nor cited. So how can you prevent your research publication from this scenario? Remember the reason why you are publishing: to share the knowledge with the world. It might be obvious, but one of the main goals of science is to explain how the world is working, to other human fellows. That is why it is crucial for scientists to disseminate their research to the world. While you wait for the publication of your research, you could invest some time to plan its dissemination. Otherwise the world won't know about your research findings. A lot of scientists tend to underestimate the importance of science communication and dissemination of their research. Communication is a real thing to gain reputation, citation numbers and therefore chances to get grants, as well as a non-negligible boost in your personal career. Scientific finding dissemination is even more relevant when it comes to public-funded research. Because these projects are funded with public money, the public has the right to know about it. That’s why a dissemination plan is now often required when submitting project proposals or applying for a grant. If you are stuck with the ideas of how and where to disseminate your research findings after publishing, this article might help you out. You will find dissemination and communication tips and advice from science communicators that can help shed light on your scientific expertise. Think before disseminating your researchFor this article, we interviewed some of the experts in science communication, to provide you with the most reliable advice. One of the experts is Dr. Danny Kingsley, a scholarly communication consultant and a visiting fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. We spoke with Dr. Martina Ribar Hestericová, chemist turned professional science communicator and Dr. Lilian Nassi Calò, the coordinator of scholarly communication at BIREME, a specialized Center of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization in São Paulo. Daisy Shearer, experimental physicist and spintronics researcher at the University of Surrey also shared her point of view with us. Many thanks to them for sharing their experience. Publishing your research “is not the end of the line, but the beginning instead,” Dr. Danny Kingsley emphasises. The first thing to consider is making the paper open access. “If you published in an open access journal - your work is done. If you haven’t, then put a copy of your accepted manuscript into your university or subject repositories,” she advises. If you are not sure what you are allowed to do, check out the How Can I Share It website. It gives you practical information about “where a journal article can be shared in line with the paper’s access and usage rights.” Dr. Lilian Nassi Calò works closely with the SciELO journals, translating Portuguese to English versions. She mentions that many journals have established the practice of disseminating information on social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Yet, the latest criteria for indexing journals in SciELO encourages authors to engage and use the potential of those platforms for disseminating their publication as well. Thus, the most important questions you need answered before disseminating your research are:
When you have those questions answered, it will be much easier to focus on the following steps. 1. Repackaging your research in different content formsDifferent audiences prefer different media. Different media favours different content forms. That’s why it is important to think about the ways you can repackage your research publication. It will help you find the right content for each channel, maximizing the reach and engagement of your audience. You wouldn’t listen to a reading of your research publication on the radio, or watch the same static scene for a TV report, right? That’s why you also need to think about what are the best options of “repackaging” your research. Adjust it accordingly to the audience and channel with which you want to reach them. We can divide content in three different categories. Textual:
Text is still the basic form of content, both in new and traditional media. Think about your publication title and the summary of it. What is the key message you want to share? With whom? Adjust it to the audience you want to reach and to the media you want to use to do so. Remember to adjust the language as well. Overly-used scientific terms and jargonism are often one of the key reasons why public trust in science is decreasing over the last couple of years. “Writing about science in an understandable way is translating, not dumbing it down,” says Dr. Danny Kingsley, stressing how important it is for scientists to adopt this perspective. “The easiest way of making your text more readable is to check your sentences and find commas in it. IDecide if it can be a full stop instead,” she suggests. “The other thing is to use shorter words. In English that means using the Germanic version instead of the Latin derivative of the word. For example, say ‘chew’ instead of ‘masticate’,” Dr. Kingsley advises. “Sometimes we like to lock ourselves in the ivory tower and talk scientific terms, using very technical language - this will not reach the general public in the right way,” agrees Dr. Martina Ribar Hestericová, chemist turned professional science communicator. “When writing a blog, especially if you’re new to it, a readability index tool can be really helpful. It will help you get the sense whether or not what you’re writing about is understandable,” Dr. Danny Kingsley shares her writing advice. Luckily, there are free online tools which can assist you with the readability index of your text. They can help you practice writing in a more understandable way. Hemingway Editor is one of them. There are also specialised programmes such as Kudos, which helps you “write about your work in an understandable way and then track it. Not all institutions have it, but it’s worth checking it,” concludes Dr. Danny Kingsley. Last, but not least: don’t forget the importance of a good headline. “It shouldn’t be the same as your research publication title. It should be short and attractive to grab the attention of the audience,” Dr. Lilian Nassi Calò suggests.
This infographic is based on the experience in dissemination of the Labs Explorer’s team. It could help you with ideas of turning your research publication into different textual forms such as blog posts or an article for a website, summary of it or a press release for media. Visual:Did you know that the human brain processes visual information 60 000 times faster than text ? That’s why you should consider options of turning your research in a visual form. Infographics and posters are always a good idea. There are many free online tools, such as Canvathat can help you with designing them. Usually they already have a lot of templates that can inspire you. Creating a presentation that can be uploaded on SlideShare is also a good idea, as you will have to use it during the conferences anyways. And remember - a picture is worth a thousand words.Image: Science Explainers
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