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Broadening the impact of your publication: Home

In order for scholarly work to have its intended impact, it must be discoverable, usable and citable. Every scholar can take steps to promote their work to the widest possible audience.

Writing a manuscript title

Deciding on a manuscript title and other descriptive keywords can be tricky business for a variety of reasons. Not only do you want to catch your audience’s attention and be clear in what the publication is about, you also want the widest audience possible to FIND your work. Think about the search terms you would use to find your article.

These resources provide tips on writing a good article title:

Selecting a journal

When possible, select a journal that is indexed in the major databases for your field.  Ulrich’s Periodical Directory (Print: Reserve Deak PN4832 .U5) lists the databases each journal is indexed in. Librarians can help you discover this information - just ask us.

Consider submitting to an open access journal.  Studies suggest that articles available freely online are more likely to be discovered, read and cited later on.

Share your data

Although many researchers make data available upon request, studies suggest that openly sharing the data associated with a research study increases the likelihood that a study will be cited later on.

Sharing your data via a data repository (such as FigShare or Dryad) may increase the impact of your work.

 

Make connections with other scholars

Subject to the limits placed on sharing your work by the copyright transfer agreement you signed, post a copy of your publication on a personal webpage or social networking site. If you don’t have permission to post the full text, add the article title, authors and abstract to your profile page along with a link to the article on the publishers website.

Check Sherpa/Romeo for more details about which journals allow their authors to share a copy of their paper or ask a librarian for assistance.

Scholars actively share their research on popular social networking site such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as more academically focused social networks: