Get Visible or Vanish: 10 Rules for Promoting Your Research

Publishing your research is more than a personal choice; it is an ethical and increasingly regulatory obligation. Human and animal research is only justified when the insights gained are shared with all, a principle embedded in long‑standing ethical frameworks such as the Declaration of Helsinki [1]. Reporting is doubly mandated when research involves volunteers or is funded by charitable donations or public funds. Granting bodies need to demonstrate tangible returns on their investments, and funding requests increasingly require researchers to explain how they intend to disseminate their findings and create a legacy for their work.

It is generally accepted that top‑ranking journals attract the widest audiences, and scientists have long recognised the importance of targeting so‑called high‑impact journals to get their work noticed. However, gaining access to top‑flight journals is difficult, and exposure is not necessarily guaranteed. Huge competition exists for attention within the scientific literature, with more than 2.5 million new items added each year [2].

We are also bombarded with news articles, e‑newsletters, blogs, podcasts and videos. Even with the aid of powerful online search engines, it is getting harder for scientists to get their work seen.

Traditionally, scientists have viewed promoting their own research as self‑serving, preferring their work to speak for itself. Times have changed. Researchers must now engage in promotional activities to gain recognition. Many appreciate that a robust process of dissemination after publication builds stronger scientific reputations and increases future opportunities [3]. However, it can be hard to convince some scientists of the importance of actively disseminating their findings. In the end, I wrote an Insider’s Insight to underline to our partners the importance of promoting your work [4]. Even now, researchers can be divided into two camps: those who see publication as the final step in the process, and those who see it as the first step in sharing their findings with the wider world.

Here are 10 peri‑publication activities that will help increase the discoverability, readership and impact of your research.

Rule 1: Work with dissemination in mind.

Stop viewing research and dissemination as two separate activities. Substantial groundwork to identify and create materials to promote your research can be done while preparing manuscripts for publication. Early planning is associated with higher visibility and more effective knowledge translation [5].

Rule 2: Use pre‑prints.

A preprint is a full draft of a research paper shared publicly before peer review. Preprints stake a clear claim to your work, accelerate visibility, and are associated with higher attention scores and citation advantages [6]. Their use has grown rapidly across disciplines.

Rule 3: Exploit the journal’s resources.

These may include RSS feeds linking to newly published material and customised links that provide free access to your article. Journal newsletters and “table of contents” alerts forward updates on your paper to journal readers. Many journals also offer author toolkits, lay summaries or graphical abstract templates that can increase reach [7].

Rule 4: Liaise with your institution.

Academic and commercial organisations are generally eager to promote fruitful research. Tell your institution’s press office or public relations team of any pending successes. Ask if they would be interested in developing a press release—press releases have been shown to significantly increase article downloads and media coverage [8].

Rule 5: Access your networks.

Co‑workers, colleagues and peers are the easiest audience to engage. Email your wider network with news about your publication and provide a link to the article. Reach out to others in your field. Personal networks remain one of the strongest drivers of early readership [9].

Rule 6: Participate in scholarly collaboration to extend your reach.

Sharing your resources and accomplishments through scholarly networks is an excellent way to increase visibility. Consider sharing your data on community‑recognised repositories. Open data is associated with increased citations and broader reuse [10].

Rule 7: Enrich your content.

Dry, academic descriptions need to be enriched if you want to engage broader audiences. A compelling plain‑language summary or short call‑outs can pique curiosity, and video summaries can add a new dimension to your research and boost engagement [11]. Visual abstracts, in particular, have been shown to increase social media dissemination [12].

Rule 8: Use Twitter and social networks.

Twitter and other social platforms are rich and reliable channels for exchanging highly specialised information. Twitter plays a significant role in scholarly communication, cross‑disciplinary knowledge‑sharing, and contributes to the non‑academic impact of research [13]. Articles promoted on Twitter often receive more attention and citations [14].

Rule 9: Create a website or blog.

Traditional scientific channels are slow to publish and conservative in the forum they offer for expanding on the broader meaning of your research. Blogs are an excellent means of generating new research opportunities, initiating conversations and sparking collaborations. Blogging has been shown to increase article downloads and altmetric attention [15].

Rule 10: Track your activity.

Find out how your articles are being read, shared and cited. Promoting your research takes time, and you need to track which activities have the greatest effect on reach, impact and legacy so you can get the most out of your efforts. Tools such as citation databases, altmetrics and repository analytics can help you understand your dissemination footprint [16].

Conclusion

The internet has transformed scientific communication. If you ignore this development, your research may not get the recognition it deserves. You do not need to promote your article on every social media outlet. Even a small amount of self‑promotion in the right areas can have a significant impact. As Barton and Merolli argued, it is time to replace “publish or perish” with “get visible or vanish” [17].

For more detailed guidance, see our latest Insider’s Insight on responsible self‑promotion [4].

References

1. World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA. 2013;310(20):2191–4.
2. Bornmann L, Mutz R. Growth rates of modern science: A bibliometric analysis. J Assoc Inf Sci Technol. 2015;66(11):2215–22.
3. Tenopir C, et al. Changes in scholarly reading patterns over time. Learned Publishing. 2015;28(2):93–105.
4. Niche Science & Technology Ltd (2016). Insider’s Insight: Promoting your work.
5. Wilson PM, et al. Does dissemination planning increase research impact? Implement Sci. 2010;5:55.
6. Serghiou S, Ioannidis JPA. Altmetric scores, citations, and publication of studies posted as preprints. JAMA. 2018;319(4):402–4.
7. Elsevier. Author resources and toolkits.
8. Sumner P, et al. The association between press releases and research uptake. PLoS One. 2016;11(9):e0162947.
9. Van Noorden R. Online collaboration: Scientists and the social network. Nature. 2014;512(7513):126–9.
10. Piwowar H, Vision TJ. Data reuse and the open data citation advantage. PeerJ. 2013;1:e175.
11. Spicer S. Exploring video abstracts in science journals. Learned Publishing. 2014;27(2):113–23.
12. Ibrahim AM, et al. Visual abstracts to disseminate research on social media. Ann Surg. 2017;266(6):e46–8.
13. Haustein S, et al. Tweets as impact indicators. J Assoc Inf Sci Technol. 2014;65(3):656–69.
14. Eysenbach G. Can tweets predict citations? J Med Internet Res. 2011;13(4):e123.
15. Shema H, Bar‑Ilan J, Thelwall M. Do blog citations correlate with a higher number of future citations? J Assoc Inf Sci Technol. 2014;65(5):1018–27.
16. Barton CJ, Merolli MA. It is time to replace publish or perish with get visible or vanish. Br J Sports Med. 2017;51(19):1489–90.