Increasing Visibility & Impact
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To improve your academic and societal impact as a researcher, visibility of your work and a deliberate strategy with regard to publishing and grant applications are key. Below, you will find advice and links to relevant services and sources.
- Making your work more visible
By making your research visible and accessible your it is more likely to be noticed and used, thus increasing your own reputation and chances of success in your academic work. A selection of tools and activities is presented below:
1. Get a unique author identifier
Getting an ORCID iD helps to distinguish yourself and your work from that of other researchers. It is a widely used author identifier, recognized by publishers, funding organizations and research institutions. To learn more about ORCID iD please visit this page.2. Share your research output
Making your work (e.g. publications, posters, research data, code, video) openly available to others increases your visibility. Many public funders require that publications, as well as underlying data, are made available to the public. Besides publishing your work via for example Open Access or hybrid journals, you can make closed publications openly available after six months, through the universities’ repositories. For more information please visit this page. For more information making available data sets, please visit this page. After publication, update the academic platforms you use and share the news via these platforms, social networks or for example as a by-line in your email signature.3. Create and maintain online profiles
Personal or institutional webpages can be used to highlight your accomplishments and fields of expertise. Various platforms allow you to list your research outputs and provide visitors with information about usage and impact of your work. Suggested platforms on an author level are University of Twente Research Information, ORCID, and Google Scholar. It is important to maintain the profiles that you choose to create, so that the information is correct and up to date. Besides personal pages, your research unit’s webpage could help to increase your visibility and impact. Clear responsibilities within your research unit or institute can help to keep this web page up to date, findable and easily accessible for others. For technical questions regarding the University of Twente website (e.g. editing rights, requesting new pages) please contact Marketing & Communication via onlinemedia@utwente.nl.4. Engage in academic social networks
Besides showcasing your research output some academic/professional platforms function as a social network. Suggested social networks are LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Academia and Mendeley. Again, it is important to at least provide correct and up-to-date information on created profiles. In the case of these social networks, interacting with other users of the platform will increase your visibility and serve as proof of your commitment and expertise in the field.5. Blogs, Tweets & more
Research findings can be shared in various forms and degrees of complexity, depending on the audience and the purpose of communicating. ‘Non-traditional’ ways of communicating your research are often not required by any standard or procedure, so the choice is very much up to you. Determining the goal of your communication activities (e.g. raising awareness among broad audience, receiving feedback from certain communities, educating children) and personal strengths (e.g. writing, talking, visualizing, video editing) will help you find the means of communication that positively attribute to your visibility and impact. To highlight news via the University of Twente communication channels, reach out to the Marketing & Communication staff of your faculty. - Refining your publication strategy
When selecting journals for publication of your research findings, a number of factors come into play. The list below is an adaptation of a list that is part of the ‘Research Handbook’ published by Karlstad University.
- Authorship: If you collaborate with other researchers, decide early on who should be listed as authors or contributors to your work. Check the publication outlet’s guidelines for authorship. Some journals demand very detailed accounts on authors and contributors, make sure you can comply with them.
- Publication type: Should you opt for writing a book, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers, or a mix of these? The answer to this depends on the nature of your project, and funder requirements. It is easy to promise a funder ‘too much’ when writing a grant application, remember that you have to deliver on your promises.
- Aims and scopes of the journal/publisher: Can you deliver what the publisher wants? Do not hesitate to ask the publisher whether your idea for a paper suits the journal. Do not waste time writing up research in a way that does not meet the requirements of the publication channel and the funder.
- Complying with submission guidelines: Many articles are rejected because authors have not followed submission guidelines. Read them thoroughly, and double-check before submission.
- Submission to publishing time: Publishing is often a slow process. Check the estimated publishing time with publisher
- Rejection rate: Many prestigious research outlets have long turn-around and high rejection rates. Account for this in your publication strategy. Also, rejection is normal, plan for it. It is a good idea to make a ranking list of publication outlets, so you have a Plan B.
- Trustworthiness of publisher: Sadly, there are many publishers trying to profit from researchers by luring them with short publishing times and fast peer-review. As a general rule, serious publishers will not contact you by e-mail.
- Language: While many disciplines disseminate research mainly in English, sometimes it can be a good idea to use other languages to communicate with the particular stakeholders you want to reach.
- Indexing: Will your research be published in outlets indexed by major databases such as Web of Science or Scopus? Indexing can be of importance for funders, for bibliometric purposes, and for gaining visibility for your research.
- Publication model: Open access or traditional journal? How important is it for you to keep your copyright and the ability to freely disseminate your research? Do your financers request open access? Even when you don’t publish open access, you can still open up your closed publications afterwards. For more information, visit this page.
- Improving your grant applications
Communicating the impact of your work in grant applications helps to increase your chances of getting research funding. There is more to impact than metrics such as citation count and h-index. Moreover, funders such as NWO no longer allow bibliometrics in grant applications. Impact sections will require you to think about impact goals, beneficiaries (organizations, groups, sectors, etc.) and pathways that ensure the impact goals will affect the potential beneficiaries positively. The Grants Office provides strategic advice and support on developing a grant proposal, applying for different funding programmes and managing granted projects. For more information, please visit this page.
- Training & Support
A course on how to increase the visibility and impact of your work is provided by the University Library for PhD candidates. For more information and enrollment, please visit this page. Support activities regarding grant applications are facilitated by the Grants Office, and can be found via this page.
Any questions?
