Strategies for enhancing the visibility and reach of your research

 Source: https://guides.library.unisa.edu.au/publishing/visibility

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Strategies for enhancing the visibility and reach of your research

• A few tips
• From the publishers

Make your research outputs open access	Share your research data
Share your work via multiple channels	Have a unique identifier for research outputs
Write for search engine optimisation	Actively engage with those interested in your work
Set up author profiles and identifiers	Track visibility with altmetrics

Endorsed author profiles and identifiers

• Author identifiers
• ORCiD
• Scopus
• ResearcherID on Publons

Author identifiers

The University encourages its researchers to have three author identifiers - ORCID, Scopus (where available) and ResearcherID (now hosted on Publons). One of the major reasons is author disambiguation - they assist in linking research outputs to the correct author. This reduces administrative burden, improves data accuracy and the discoverability of research outputs.

• ORCID is independent, community-driven and intended to be overarching. Some publishers and funding bodies have made providing this identifier mandatory
• Scopus Author ID is automatically generated for authors whose work is indexed in the Scopus database 
• ResearcherID is hosted on Publons (provided by Clarivate Analytics)

UniSA staff homepage

For UniSA staff, your homepage will probably rank highly in search engine results.

If you have ORCID, Scopus and Publons (ResearcherID) profiles the badges linking to these should appear in the About Me section. If not, Ask the Library can help!

Log in to update content on your homepage via the cog icon and under About Me > Social Media Links you can optionally add badges for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Scholar and Instagram.

• Developing a biography for your UniSA Staff homepage

  100 words will display in the first window - this Guide advises on how to use these to best effect!
• Staff Home Page Help

  This UniSA site (provided by BIP) 'explains the source data for the staff home page and provides instructions on how staff can update content on their page'.
• Ask the Library

  Need more help? Ask the Library! You can contact us via chat, phone or email

Plan your online presence

• Compare
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate
• Academia

Before you create profiles, explore some of those available and consider:

• how many profiles can you maintain?
• who you want to reach - other researchers, the public, practitioners?
• can you list your publications and if so how easy is it to do this?
• can you upload full text of publications (where copyright permits)?
• what metrics can you view on engagement with your activity or work - e.g. citations, views?
• what do you want to achieve - greater exposure for your work, find collaborators, get comments from peers on drafts, participate in online communities, keep up-to-date with the latest publications in a field...?

More on Social Media...

• Social Media for Researchers

  This UniSA Guide features tips and examples for using social media to increase the visibility of your research.

Make your research accessible

• Before publishing
• UniSA Repository
• APO
• Share data

For all publication types, consider these factors about the publisher: reputation; how well they promote your work; will your work be discoverable (e.g. via their website or a key database); their copyright policies (e.g. can you self-archive in repositories?)

For journal articles specifically, consider:

• is the journal targeted at the audience you want to reach?
• is the journal widely indexed - will you find articles in relevant databases and Google Scholar?
• is the journal open access or restricted to subscribers?
• how well regarded/influential is the journal - measured by esteem and/or citations
• have you considered search engine optimisation when writing?

• SHERPA/ROMEO

  A searchable database of journals and publishers' policies on OA and self-archiving.
• Wiley - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your article

  Tips for increasing the discoverability of your article via search engines

Open Access

Open access scholarly works are available online at no cost to anyone interested in viewing them.

UniSA's Open Access Policy encourages open access by making UniSA research openly available via the Research Outputs Repository where publisher policies allow.

Certain funding bodies have open access mandates. 

• Open Access Guide

  UniSA Library Research Guide covering the what, why and how of open access
• UniSA Open Access Policy
• Research Outputs Repository (ROR)

  Contains records of UniSA research outputs, including publications, creative works and Higher Degree Student PhD and Masters by Research theses
• SHERPA/ROMEO

  A searchable database of journals and publishers' policies on OA and self-archiving.

Unique identifiers for research outputs

• Identifiers explained
• DOIs: existing and new
• Obtaining ISBNs

Unique identifiers for research outputs are associated with descriptive information (metadata) which can be found by searching for the identifier. Benefits of identifiers include:

• assist others to locate referenced works
• unambiguously claim works as your own 
• better tracking of engagement with your research (easier collection of metrics)

Examples: Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | International Standard Book Number (ISBN) | PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID) | Social Science Research Network ID (SSRN ID)

Tracking your visibility

Altmetrics are non-traditional metrics such as downloads, comments, likes, tweets and views - broadly, anything other than citations in published scholarly literature. They can be accessed via some publisher and database pages, and also via the UniSA-subscribed database Altmetric Explorer. Figures are indicative only as mentions can be missed - for example, if a news site mentions your work without including details the Altmetric company needs to detect the mention, such as a DOI.

• Metrics and Impact Guide - Altmetrics

  UniSA Library Research Guide page on alternative assessment metrics
• Altmetric Explorer

  Quickly access indicative altmetric reports for all UniSA staff with publications indexed in the UniSA Research Archive from 2008. You can also access the full Altmetric dataset and expand your search to other researchers or older publications.