Good Science That is Not Read is Inexistent Science

Nowadays, making and publishing good science just isn’t enough if you want to stand out and increase the impact of your hard work. Thankfully there are tools available online that will help you do just that. Interested in improving your chances of landing collaborators, funding and positions? Read on, this article is for you.

Who is going to read (and cite!) your paper?

There’s this old saying that goes: “Good science that is not published is inexistent science”. Although that is still very true, let me propose a slightly different approach: “Good science that is not read is inexistent science”. Every year over a million publications are added to the scientific literature. So you should ask yourself: “How can I help my target audience find my paper?” Can you really afford to leave your paper’s impact up to chance?

How articles are being found

The most common method for discovering information nowadays is the good old Google search engine – and this is true in the scientific community as well. Nowadays, a lack of online presence can and will limit a researcher’s visibility. On top of that, social media are increasingly used as a source of information as well as a dissemination platform for science.

Twitter is probably the most used social media platform among scientists. Twitter allows communicating research to a broad audience of other researchers, decision makers, journalists and the general public.

If you’re proud of your work, don’t let it drown in an ocean of similar scientific publications

Here are a few tips to help you get started on promoting your own papers. These are extremely easy steps you can take yourself, which should already get the ball rolling.

First, share the link to your paper any way you can. That means emailing your – carefully-selected – colleagues and peers. Sharing it on your private social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and so on). If your institution has one or more social media accounts, ask them to share it as well. Get your link out there.

Second, share the actual article. Drop your paper on your institutional repository and other “academic social media” platforms like Research Gate or Academia. If possible, publish open access. Otherwise, check your rights: most of the time, you can freely and safely share preprints.

That’s it for the easy first steps. Much more can be done.

Scientific articles are often difficult to understand for the lay public. Sometimes even people in your field may have a hard time grabbing the essence of your work within a few minutes. Why not prepare alternative content to explain your work and attract online attention? By making your publication more accessible, more personal and more understandable, you’re bringing in readers and growing the interest for your work.

Furthermore, by essentially blogging about your paper, you are not restricted to the very strict canvas of scientific publications. You may use engaging features, design eye-catching infographics, share a more personal story about the journey that took you to this publication, or use advanced communication methods like face-camera presentations, interactive polls, or animated illustrations.

To benefit from this kind of freedom, you could start a blog of your own. Though very time-consuming, blogging can be extremely rewarding. The bottleneck however is to build a significant audience that will read your posts, engage with your content and follow the signs to your publication. You may need some help there.

Leveraging an online outreach platform

Recently, several online services have surfaced to help researchers make their work more visible online. Platforms like External Diffusion are free of charge and have as a mantra to increase the reach of scientific publications.

Such online outreach platform allows you to create a wide variety of engaging displays of your content, so as to build a tailor-made and multi-section blog page with illustrations, infographics, videos and links to relevant resources. Additionally, you can take the opportunity to tell the “story behind your paper”, providing details or anecdotes that cannot be included in scientific papers.

A decisive strength of online outreach platforms is the social media outreach they offer. These blogging hubs are wired for social media and in some case, you can be offered a comprehensive social media communication plan that includes time-optimised posts on all the main social media networks. You are also encouraged to leverage these platforms for your own publicity by adding back links to your personal web page, your research group website and your social media accounts.

In the end, what really matters when you get your scientific work published is to make sure it is noticed. From that point on, you may expect the recognition, the citations, or the press coverage you are looking for. Whether your target is a specific community of peers or the general public, online outreach platforms are good options that allow you build and strengthen your personal online audience

By Prof. Damien Debecker, UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain

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