Enhancing the Impact and Readership of Your Work
The following steps are
designed to help ensure that as many people read your work as possible
and that it has a tangible impact. We recommend that you complete as
many of the suggested steps as possible, if they apply to you and your
work.
designed to help ensure that as many people read your work as possible
and that it has a tangible impact. We recommend that you complete as
many of the suggested steps as possible, if they apply to you and your
work.
Our journal
will be sharing your work via our website, mailing list and social
media – and by ensuring that it is indexed in multiple databases. If you
need help with disseminating your research or would like to discuss
strategies specific to your article, please let us know.
will be sharing your work via our website, mailing list and social
media – and by ensuring that it is indexed in multiple databases. If you
need help with disseminating your research or would like to discuss
strategies specific to your article, please let us know.
1) E-mail Co-Workers, Mailing Lists, Industry Contacts etc.
The easiest method to enhance
publication impact is to send an e-mail to colleagues and peers
informing them that your work has just been released.
publication impact is to send an e-mail to colleagues and peers
informing them that your work has just been released.
This may take a bit of creativity.
Consider what e-mail lists you have access to: (i) colleagues at your
institution, (ii) undergraduate or post-graduate students, (iii)
collaborators on research projects, and (iv) members of professional
associations/networks. You may wish to combine these lists and send out
one announcement, or you may see a benefit in taking 10 minutes and
customizing a message for each particular group.
Consider what e-mail lists you have access to: (i) colleagues at your
institution, (ii) undergraduate or post-graduate students, (iii)
collaborators on research projects, and (iv) members of professional
associations/networks. You may wish to combine these lists and send out
one announcement, or you may see a benefit in taking 10 minutes and
customizing a message for each particular group.
Remember to keep emails short and
simple. Also, be sure to include a link to the article. By having
readers visit the article online, your article will rise more quickly in
the list of “Most Read” articles on the journal site.
simple. Also, be sure to include a link to the article. By having
readers visit the article online, your article will rise more quickly in
the list of “Most Read” articles on the journal site.
You may wish to use the e-mail to ask
others to share your recent research with pertinent colleagues via
e-mail or via social media platforms, if they are comfortable doing so.
others to share your recent research with pertinent colleagues via
e-mail or via social media platforms, if they are comfortable doing so.
2) Advertise the Article via Personal and Institutional Social Media Platforms
Social media is a valuable (and free)
opportunity to announce your research to a potentially large audience.
Currently, the most important social media platforms are Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn. Institutional accounts are likely to be handled
by a research assistant, intern or administrator, who you’ll need to
contact.
opportunity to announce your research to a potentially large audience.
Currently, the most important social media platforms are Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn. Institutional accounts are likely to be handled
by a research assistant, intern or administrator, who you’ll need to
contact.
Announce the publication multiple times,
as it may get swamped among other content or may not be timed right for
other regions around the world. Consider announcing it a couple of
times after it has been released, but general rules would be:
as it may get swamped among other content or may not be timed right for
other regions around the world. Consider announcing it a couple of
times after it has been released, but general rules would be:
• Don’t announce anything on a Friday (article views are always much lower at weekends).
• Don’t Tweet at midnight, if you target audience will be asleep
[consider time zone differences– if you have followers in different
continents, take this into account].
• Always include the URL (web address) for the article. In Twitter, be
sure to shorten the URL so that it does not get cut off when people
re-tweet it [for instance, see https://bitly.com/shorten/ or http://goo.gl/].
• Don’t Tweet at midnight, if you target audience will be asleep
[consider time zone differences– if you have followers in different
continents, take this into account].
• Always include the URL (web address) for the article. In Twitter, be
sure to shorten the URL so that it does not get cut off when people
re-tweet it [for instance, see https://bitly.com/shorten/ or http://goo.gl/].
In LinkedIn, keep in mind that they have a “publications” section in
your profile where you can list and link to your work. Also, LinkedIn
groups offer fantastic opportunity to advertise research. Check out
specialized groups pertinent to your work or overarching groups that
tend to be widely followed. For example, go to the LinkedIn page and
start a new “Discussion” about your research; frame it provocatively or
in a way to garner attention.
For a convincing argument on why posting your publications on social media platforms is a valuable task, see: http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_01_archive.html.
[You might also want to see “Strategies to Get Your Research Mentioned Online”: http://www.altmetric.com/blog/
3) Insert References to Your Work into Wikipedia Articles
This will help to improve quality of the Wikipedia coverage on your
subject matter, whilst also helping to draw traffic to your article.
Go to Wikipedia – create an account if you don’t have one – and find
existing Wikipedia articles directly relevant to your article that would
benefit from additional citation information. In appropriate locations
throughout these articles, add citations referring to your work. This
can be done by:
Please also ensure that you only place citations that are directly
relevant to your publication, otherwise Wikipedia may remove the edit.
your profile where you can list and link to your work. Also, LinkedIn
groups offer fantastic opportunity to advertise research. Check out
specialized groups pertinent to your work or overarching groups that
tend to be widely followed. For example, go to the LinkedIn page and
start a new “Discussion” about your research; frame it provocatively or
in a way to garner attention.
For a convincing argument on why posting your publications on social media platforms is a valuable task, see: http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_01_archive.html.
[You might also want to see “Strategies to Get Your Research Mentioned Online”: http://www.altmetric.com/blog/
3) Insert References to Your Work into Wikipedia Articles
This will help to improve quality of the Wikipedia coverage on your
subject matter, whilst also helping to draw traffic to your article.
Go to Wikipedia – create an account if you don’t have one – and find
existing Wikipedia articles directly relevant to your article that would
benefit from additional citation information. In appropriate locations
throughout these articles, add citations referring to your work. This
can be done by:
- Add a Reference: This is quick and easy. Go to the “Edit” window of
the Wikipedia page. (Click on Edit at the top right of the article.)
Find a place where you would like to add a footnote to your work – using
the citation format within your published article. There, add the
following:<ref>BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE FO YOUR WORK</ref>
For Instance: <ref>Deazley, R 2014. Comics, Copyright and Academic Publishing. The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship 4(1):5, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/cg.ap</ref> - Add an External Link: If the article has a list of “external links”,
go to the list at the bottom of the page and add an entry. An entry
will start with an asterisk (*), followed by a bit of text in between
two brackets: [text goes here]. Inside of the brackets, you insert the
URL/web address for your article followed by a space. Whatever you put
after the space will be the display text (that the reader at Wikipedia
will be able to see).*[URL Title of the Article]
Please also ensure that you only place citations that are directly
relevant to your publication, otherwise Wikipedia may remove the edit.
4) Upload to Databases, Websites and Communities of Practice
The journal will index publications in online libraries and databases
of journal articles. These may take a few weeks to include your
article, but they will be submitted as soon as possible.
However, including articles in appropriate databases and websites is
also your responsibility. Identify pertinent databases, websites and
communities of practice that either have (a) an online document library
or (b) an online bibliography or list of resources. Or ask colleagues if
they belong to any sites or relevant communities of practice where they
could upload your work. These often have standard ways of submitting
new research, either by sharing the URL to your research or by sending
an e-mail to a generic inbox.
5) Blog about Your Work – and Comment on It
This is a time-consuming process but often an effective one. There are two main ways to subtly promote your work online.
of journal articles. These may take a few weeks to include your
article, but they will be submitted as soon as possible.
However, including articles in appropriate databases and websites is
also your responsibility. Identify pertinent databases, websites and
communities of practice that either have (a) an online document library
or (b) an online bibliography or list of resources. Or ask colleagues if
they belong to any sites or relevant communities of practice where they
could upload your work. These often have standard ways of submitting
new research, either by sharing the URL to your research or by sending
an e-mail to a generic inbox.
5) Blog about Your Work – and Comment on It
This is a time-consuming process but often an effective one. There are two main ways to subtly promote your work online.
- Blogs: Find relevant blogs and contact the bloggers to ask them to
consider writing about your recent research and to discuss its potential
implications. Ask if they wouldn’t mind reviewing your article on their
site. Or, if you have a blog, or if your institution does, write a post
summarizing your research and drawing out its implications in a pithy
manner. This could be a mere 150-500 words but should not repeat your
abstract. - Comments: If your article concerns a timely subject mater, consider
visiting relevant news articles (nytimes.com, CNN.com, BBC.co.uk etc).
In the “comment” section at the end of the article, post a one-sentence
comment highlighting the relevant research you just released and
providing a link to the full text of the article. You may feel awkward
posting such comments on news sites or blogs, but they will help draw
additional attention to your article (including among journalists, who
often review comments on their articles).
6) Ask Others For Assistance In Disseminating Your Work
Ask others for help in disseminating
your work. For instance, consider the following options: (i) ask your
office or department’s administrator to send it out to your
institution’s e-mail lists; (ii) see if your IT personnel could
advertise the article at your institution’s website/homepage or on your
personal profile page; (iii) ask colleagues or students to share the
article via their blogs or social media accounts, if they are
comfortable doing so; or (iv) send the article to teaching faculty,
proposing that they include it in upcoming courses.
your work. For instance, consider the following options: (i) ask your
office or department’s administrator to send it out to your
institution’s e-mail lists; (ii) see if your IT personnel could
advertise the article at your institution’s website/homepage or on your
personal profile page; (iii) ask colleagues or students to share the
article via their blogs or social media accounts, if they are
comfortable doing so; or (iv) send the article to teaching faculty,
proposing that they include it in upcoming courses.
There is nothing inappropriate about
asking for support in disseminating your work. Just don’t push too much,
and be willing to return the favour.
asking for support in disseminating your work. Just don’t push too much,
and be willing to return the favour.
Note: When disseminating publications,
you may receive questions about copyrights and permissions. As all our
publications are released under the Creative Commons
License, authors retain the copyright to works published. Hence,
re-post it on any site – either text or the PDF file. There’s no need to
ask permission, we simply request that you indicate where the work was
first published; include a URL to the original version if possible.
*Source text provided by Steven A. Zyck and edited by Tim Wakeford. Adapted for The Comics Grid by Ernesto Priego.you may receive questions about copyrights and permissions. As all our
publications are released under the Creative Commons
License, authors retain the copyright to works published. Hence,
re-post it on any site – either text or the PDF file. There’s no need to
ask permission, we simply request that you indicate where the work was
first published; include a URL to the original version if possible.
Updated by Ernesto Priego on 28 May 2014.
Enhancing the Impact and Readership of Your Work
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