How to ensure your research achieves the impact it deserves

Reports on my presentation at Tilburg University

Tilburg seminar

Since November 2017 I have a visiting appointment at Tilburg University. As part of its mission to further improve their international position and impact of their research, I gave a seminar discussing the four C’s of getting cited [competence, collaboration, care, and communication] before presenting an 8-step workflow on how to effectively disseminate your research.

My presentation (full slides can be downloaded here and are available on Slideshare) also discussed the why's and why not's of using social media professionally and the practicalities of engaging with social media to build your academic brand. A similar presentation at Middlesex University was recorded and the full recording can be viewed here. I covered the main social media outlets that are relevant in academia:

  1. Google Scholar Profiles, not strictly speaking social media as there is limited scope for interaction beyond following an academic's updates, but it is an essential online CV, covering all your publications and their citations. Since version 5 and 6 Publish or Perish also allows searching Google Scholar Profiles, which instantly gives you all of PoP's handy metrics for your Google Scholar profile.
  2. LinkedIn profile, very useful to present your basic CV online and connect with other academics (and non-academics!). You can also write up news stories and share resources with your followers. I find it a very useful venue to share my blogposts as it draws a slightly different audience than my Twitter account (which is followed more by academics in bibliometrics than by academics in my home discipline of International Management).
  3. ResearchGate, another online platform that allows you to list your publications (with full-text where possible) and define research projects. Just be careful to adjust your email alert settings so that you only receive those that are actually meaningful to you. As one of my co-authors said: "Researchgate's default settings alert you whenever someone in your networks farts".
  4. Twitter, a micro-blogging site. Initially I thought Twitter was utterly stupid only useful for celebrities and people concerned with each others' breakfasts, but I have found it a very useful means to keep up-to-date with academic news and share your own (and your colleagues') work and achievements. An unexpected benefit can be internal marketing, my Dean, Executive Dean and VC all follow me.
  5. Blogging. As you can see I have embraced this outlet with gusto, posting in the following ten categories: Academia Behind the Scenes, Academic Etiquette, Classic Papers, Conferences, CYGNA, From my Inbox, Positive Academia, Publish or Perish Tips, Research Focus, and That's Interesting.

Videos: ResearchGate, Blogging, LinkedIn and Twitter

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