Source: https://www.waikato.ac.nz/library/for/researchers/research-impact/boost

10 Ways to Boost the Impact of Your Research

#1

Build a pathway to impact into your research planning

Consider your research goals and the audience your research needs to reach. Make decisions accordingly and consider all kinds of impact, scholarly and non-scholarly.

Tip: Research and Enterprise can help with impact pathway planning in proposals

#2

Be strategic about choosing keywords and titles

Think carefully when choosing keywords and titles. Remember that your research will generally appear higher in search results where a keyword is used multiple times, especially in the title and abstract.

Tip: Take note of the most-used keywords in your field.

#3

Get an ORCID ID and use it as much as possible

In your email signature, in any online profiles, in submissions, wherever you can. Ensure that you’ve automated as much profile building as possible.

Tip: Go to http://orcid.org for more details

#4

Use identifiers to ensure you get credit for your work

Using persistent identifiers such as ORCID ID and DOIs minimises the risk that your work will be misattributed and optimises the ability of various tools to gather and report on impact and attention.

Tip: Attend one of our "Raising your profile" workshops to find out more

#5

Make sure all your profiles are correct and linked

Check that your name, affiliation and publications are correct in all databases (IRIS, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar etc). Link profiles and add additional identifiers wherever possible

Tip: See our Profiles Checklist for ideas on what else can be linked

#6

Publish Open Access

According to recent research, Open Access articles receive on average 44% more citations than non Open Access articles (White et al, 2019).

Tip: Attend one of our 'Measuring and Maximising the Impact of Your Research' workshops

#7

Deposit your work into Research Commons, your Open Access repository

Many publishing contracts allow accepted manuscripts to be deposited in repositories under certain conditions, even if you haven’t paid a fee for it to be made Open Access. 

Tip: Deposit via IRIS or email researchcommons@waikato.ac.nz

#8

Share outputs other than your manuscripts

If appropriate, consider sharing your data sets, software or other digital resources. With the appropriate identifiers, these can then be credited back to you as other researchers make use of them.

Tip: Your Academic Liaison Librarian can help you with this

#9

Promote your work

Make your work as visible as possible. Share it wherever you can, for example, at conferences, on your personal website, through social media or online academic networks.

Tip: Consider creating a communication plan for disseminating your work

#10

Consider writing for a wider audience

Writing for a wider audience, for example by publishing a lay summary or a blog can open up your research to a wider range of readers, including influencers and policymakers as well as the public, enhancing impact outside of academia

Tip: The Conversation is a great way to get your research read by the public

You can also download the pdf version.