1.           Encourage attendees to create detailed profiles, including social media handles. Detailed profiles help attendees get to know each other and discover commonalities, which can help break the ice. Profiles shouldn’t include merely what they’re researching, but allow attendees to share personal interests (e.g., yoga, gaming).

2.           When promoting your event, especially on social media, make sure to specifically mention the networking components and explain how to join or register for them. Audiences are still figuring their way around the various platforms and formats of virtual conferences, so it’s a good idea to make it as easy as possible for them to join a networking session.

3.           If possible, curate the attendee list of a networking event. Ideally, try to keep a balance of “regulars” and “newbies,” so that you don’t have 7-8 pals catching up with a couple of strangers staying on mute in the sidelines. Try not to have an obvious “odd man out” such as an early career researcher among a bunch of tenured professors, or a single non-native English speaker in a group of native English speakers.

4.           Get your timing right: for discussion to be meaningful, attendees need at least one hour. But after 90 minutes, serious “Zoom fatigue” can kick in.

5.           Set informal guidelines in both a pre-event email and at the start of the meeting. Since there will always be newcomers, it’s best to spell out clearly what topic(s) can be discussed, what an attendee needs to do if they’re leaving early, etc.

6.           Start the session 2-5 minutes early so that early birds can join. But keep your main icebreaker for 1-2 minutes after the event’s official start time, so that you have maximum participation. It’s also a good idea to choose a conversation starter that doesn’t specifically have to do with an attendee’s title, institute, or country. 

7. Choose a platform that enables attendees to create their own meetings and breakout sessions. In offline events, attendees serendipitously connect with each other and choose to engage with different people on a one-on-one basis. Having some semblance of this in a virtual meeting will improve engagement.

Conclusion

Although many societies have planned in-person conferences and congresses in 2022, the old status quo is unlikely to return: societies have realized the scope for a virtual component to an in-person event and even a series of virtual events to complement a single, big in-person meeting. Virtual networking events, though not interchangeable with in-person networking, have their own advantages. For instance, organizers can split participants into random groups online to promote mixing, whereas in offline conferences, attendees focus on connecting with either known faces or acknowledged leaders. Furthermore, in conferences of the future, virtual attendees should not be made to feel like second-class citizens. Hence, conference organizers would do well to actively improve their virtual networking components, rather than assume that only the in-person attendees have networking needs. 

The post Seven Ways to Improve Your Virtual Networking Event appeared first on CACTUS.

Make Students Aware of Your Benefits

Students need to know how joining a society will benefit them directly. Societies need to cater directly to students’ various needs, to build a thriving pipeline of younger members. For instance, the Academy of Management’s Doctoral Student Development Program offers student members access to videos on sophisticated research methods and data analysis techniques, as well as video lectures. Programs or schemes targeted towards students, especially undergraduates or recent graduates, should be promoted through channels popular to their generation (e.g., TikTok rather than Facebook).

Enable Practitioners to Apply Research

Healthcare practitioners join societies to access research that can benefit them in their daily clinical practice. Societies can best meet this need by providing easily digestible summaries of the voluminous literature they produce, so that busy practitioners can stay updated without devoting a significant amount of time to reading. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) catered to this need by partnering with Impact Science to develop concise and attractively designed visual summaries of multiple oncology papers, intended for clinicians. As part of this collaboration, ASCO’s 60-page annual report was distilled into a 3-min video.

Help Researchers Stay Updated

A fundamental need of a society’s researcher members is to stay abreast of latest developments in the field. With many researchers working from home due to lockdowns in various parts of the world, Societies need to make sure their peer-reviewed content is easy to access and consume even outside the traditional university/institutional environment.

Help Early Career Researchers Advance

Early career researchers account for a large portion of the academic workforce, but society leadership is generally dominated by senior researchers. One way societies can retain early career researchers as members is by offering them opportunities to lead, share their opinions, and influence Society decisions. For instance, the American Society for Cell Biology instituted COMPASS (Committee for Postdocs and Students) to help young scientists build connections within the Society, network with policymakers and leaders, enhance their skills and expertise, and advance in their careers. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics has set up PharmTalk, a platform to inform young researchers about career options and share best practices.   

Get Creative With Membership Fees

Although you may feel your fees are priced reasonably, your calculations are probably based on “normal” (i.e. pre-pandemic) times. When faced with budget cuts, job insecurity, or other financial constraints, your members will probably re-evaluate whether their society memberships are financially worthwhile. Now’s the time to explore affiliate or loyalty programs if you haven’t done so before: for example,  the American Chemical Society offers existing members a one-year waiver on their dues, as well as special waivers or discounts for not just student members but also those pausing their careers to care for their families, those who are disabled, and those serving in the US Armed Forces.

Foster Connections Among Members

It’s an understatement to say that all types of members are probably craving more connection with their peers this year. Even those fortunate enough to return to their workplace have to grapple with new travel restrictions, which prevent them from attending conferences to network as they used to. While virtual and hybrid (online/offline) conferences will likely dominate the scene in 2022, Societies can host various large and small virtual networking events throughout the year. For instance, AHRA (American Healthcare Radiology Administrators) offers both members and non-members the opportunity to host a free virtual networking event, while providing logistical and marketing support.

Conclusion

Owing to the pandemic, the needs and environment of society members have changed, often drastically. Successful societies recognize and adapt to these changing needs, ensuring they are relevant and valuable for all member segments in the long run.

The post Growing and Retaining Membership in 2022: What Societies Need to Do Differently appeared first on CACTUS.

Is TikTok a waste of time? Something for bored teens? The numbers say otherwise. Let’s look at what makes TikTok such a powerful communication tool.

What is TikTok?

With 60% of the user base belonging to GenZ, TikTok is primarily video-based like YouTube. The maximum length of a video that can be uploaded to the platform is 60 seconds. Videos created by other users, known as tiktoks, appear on a user’s “For You” page according to TikTok’s algorithms. Users have the option of recording themselves alongside an audio clip. Tiktoks can be reposted on other social media platforms, but some like Instagram actively discourage this practice.

TikTok v/s. Other Social Media Apps

Facebook: Long considered the preferred social media platform, Facebook lost out to TikTok in 2021 in terms of time spent per user. Despite the erstwhile social media giant being able to host all kinds of content, including video stories, the platform has declining growth among younger users in the US, its oldest market.

Twitter: Twitter is primarily considered the go-to platform for news and updates as well as discussions and commentaries on public affairs despite having multimedia upload features. This gives Twitter an edge over TikTok, especially in terms of grabbing the attention of journalists, policymakers, and public officials.

Instagram: Both TikTok and Instagram work best on smartphones. Instagram has been around longer than TikTok and allows sharing of images and GIFs in addition to videos (though the time limit on Instagram reels is 30 seconds). Instagram wins over TikTok in terms of being more business-friendly, offering users the option of creating a professional account and also offers a Business Tools feature, which makes content promotion easier.

YouTube: Before the rise of TikTok, YouTube was the undisputed leader of video and video marketing. It still retains a key advantage over TikTok: there is no time limit on YouTube videos. This enables the creation of more in-depth videos as well as more opportunities to build brand awareness or gain audience trust. 

TikTok for Science Communication

Considering TikTok’s younger user base, it’s not surprising that the platform has been used to inform and educate high school and undergraduate students. There are tiktoks explaining chemistry concepts, generating excitement around marine biology, and helping engineers upskill. Universities like the University of Victoria  and Syracuse University have used TikTok for virtual campus tours and online wellness kits. In the US, Black creators have used TikTok to spread awareness of Black history (but TikTok has also been criticized for devaluing Black creators and unfairly censoring material related to the #BlackLivesMatter movement).

TikTok has also been useful in public health education. Individual doctors have created tiktoks explaining topics as diverse as the dangers of vaping and ways to improve gut health. Further, TikTok has had some success in destigmatizing mental health among men. Team Halo, a group of scientists and healthcare professionals working to combat Covid-related misinformation, have successfully used TikTok to combat vaccine misinformation, encourage minority communities to participate in vaccine trials, and reassure the public about vaccine side effects. The US government has followed suit, enlisting TikTok influencers in campaigns to get Gen Zers vaccinated. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of TikTok for Science Communication

Here are some factors to consider when choosing to include TikTok in science communication initiatives.

1. Engagement: The amount of time users spend on TikTok, particularly in the US, is increasing. For example, the average time per month spent on Tiktok was 442.9 minutes in October 2019, which increased to 858 minutes by March 2020.
2. Audience reach: Most TikTok users are Gen Z. In the US, around 30% of its users are 10-19 years old. TikTok is available in 75 languages across >150 countries including China (where platforms like Facebook and Twitter are banned).
3. Content format: TikTok primarily caters to smartphone users; hence, videos in the vertical format perform better than videos shot horizontally. The ideal aspect ratio (i.e., the relation between width and height) is 9:16, as for a standard smartphone screen. The time limit for videos is 60 seconds, though TikTok is experimenting currently with a 3-minute length.
4. Legal constraints: TikTok is currently banned in India and Pakistan. It has also been intermittently blocked in Indonesia and Bangladesh. While the Trump administration attempted to ban TikTok in the US in June 2020, President Biden revoked this order in June 2021.

Conclusion

Like it or not, TikTok has a large and growing audience in the US market. While it definitely shouldn’t be the sole (or even predominant) social channel for your digital content strategy, don’t overlook it when determining your social media mix or when it comes to social listening. Tiktok could be a useful platform for campaigns targeting younger members and early career researchers.

The post Should Your Society Take TikTok Seriously? appeared first on CACTUS.

1. Video recordings of events

If an event is solely livestreamed, it is accessible mostly to those in the right time zone, with good Internet connectivity, or with highly flexible schedules. Posting video recordings after the livestreamed event increases access for people in other time zones and countries, those who can’t afford time off during the workday to attend the event, those caring for young children during the day, etc.

2. Pre-recorded speeches

Lack of diversity in panels has been an ongoing concern. In-person conferences are often marked by “manels”: panels with heavy male representation. Having speeches pre-recorded, rather than livestreamed, opens up opportunities on panels for researchers around the world, especially those with poor Internet connectivity as well as those who can’t take time off from other responsibilities (e.g., teaching, childcare) to livestream. In other words, by allowing panelists to record their speeches beforehand, conference organizers can ensure that diverse backgrounds and perspectives are represented in every panel. 

3. Subtitles and transcripts

Adding subtitles, captions, and transcripts to videos makes the material more accessible to not just disabled people but also non-native English speakers, who could be unfamiliar with the speaker’s accent.

4. Chat rooms and forums

In offline conferences, men are known to take the lead in asking questions of speakers and general interactions. A lot of networking at conventional in-person conferences happens at events like happy hours in a local pub or an evening banquet. The informal social groups that form at these events are often inaccessible to female researchers and those from racial minorities. Virtual chat rooms and forums devoted to specific topics are one way of levelling the playing field. When commenters know that their comments could be saved (and scrutinized later), they are less likely to be overtly sexist, misogynist, or racist.

5. Plain language summaries

Climate science, ecology, management, gender studies, and even medicine are fields that interest a wide section of the population, not just those with PhDs. To make research findings accessible to non-specialist audiences—including patient advocacy groups, civil society groups, journalists, and even undergraduate students—conference organizers could prepare and disseminate plain language summaries (PLS). A PLS is a brief summary of a research paper, written in language that is easily accessible to non-specialists.

6. Flexible payment options

Conventional conferences typically had a standard registration fee (and perhaps separate fees for additional pre-conference sessions). This resulted in researchers paying for sessions or events that they weren’t actually interested in, besides also bearing costs of travel, accommodation, visas and foreign exchange, etc. Hence, conference attendance was harder for early career researchers or those from the Global South, who had limited funding and grants. The online format enables individual purchase of specific content pieces or access to chat rooms and other virtual events. Thus, this option is more cost-effective and accessible.  

Conclusion

The year 2020 saw not only a meteoric rise in the number of virtual-only academic conferences, but also a renewed interest in diversity and inclusion, especially in the US. With continuing travel bans and fears of further waves of Covid-19, virtual conferences are likely to remain mainstream in the immediate future, and hybrid (online + offline) models are likely to become popular even after the world returns to “normal.” Hence, conference organizers will find it worthwhile to invest in means to promote diversity and inclusion at virtual or hybrid conferences, especially through content.

Need help transitioning to new content formats? Impact Science offers a wide range of content and marketing solutions for your virtual conference. Contact us: request@impact.science

The post Not Just the “Old Boys Club”: Cater to the Content Needs of a Diverse Audience for Your Virtual Academic Conference appeared first on CACTUS.

Different education levels

Research is not meant for just the well-educated. For example, there’s no disease that exclusively affects university graduates. Terms like “control group” seem simple English but are in fact unlikely to be clear to people who have never been to college. PLS(Lay summary) can help readers with limited education get an accurate idea of what happened during the study and how the findings affect them. In medicine and public health, misinformation and distortion of scientific evidence has serious consequences for people’s lives and livelihoods, as seen in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Different academic backgrounds

Conventional journal articles are often jargon-heavy and hence difficult to understand for researchers from other disciplines. PLS(Lay summaries) make it easier for any researcher to grasp the key findings of a study, reducing the time and effort spent in acquiring and assimilating information. In this way, PLS(Lay summary) can foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Different geographies and language capabilities

English is not the first or native language for a significant proportion of the world’s population. It is not even used for higher education in many countries. A Society rooted in the US or UK might find it difficult to meaningfully engage with people in large parts of Asia, South America, and Africa. PLS(Lay summaries) are not only quicker for such audiences to process in English itself, but are also easier than full-length papers to be translated on the spot with free online tools or apps.

Different financial capabilities

Academics often have access to vast university libraries and institutional accounts with major publishers. They find it difficult to imagine having to spend a significant amount out of pocket to just be updated about their fields. When PLS(Lay summaries) are published outside any article paywall, key scientific evidence becomes available to anyone with Internet access, regardless of their financial status.

In the current COVID-19 pandemic, public trust in science has sharply declined, even as the role of scientists has become increasingly critical. Journals are Societies’ most-used platform for sharing research advances, but journal articles are not the public’s preferred source of information, especially in healthcare. Technical, convoluted language deters non-specialists from reading journal articles. PLS(Lay summary), by making research more accessible, help Societies inform, influence, and engage with diverse population groups.

The post Is Your Society Trying to Increase Diversity and Inclusion? Here’s a Simple Tool appeared first on CACTUS.

And yet, we have adapted, and how! With the rising popularity of the work-from-home, apps, software, and technology that make the telecommute life easier have also gained footing. Even in academia, the work, socializing, and networking of researchers has been reshaped to adapt. Work, life, and your research must go on.

Research Dissemination in the Pre-pandemic Era

As any academic would know, research isn’t truly complete if it isn’t disseminated. You’ve answered your hypotheses and found the solution to the most pressing questions in your field, but until the world knows about what you’ve found, there are very small chances that your work will grow organically.

Now, in the ancient (read pre-pandemic) days, the age-old tradition of networking, and specifically, research posters, were the solution to this dilemma.

A research poster is a widely used format of research sharing in the academic community; most research conferences are sprinkled with academics explaining their research printed on posters in a clear and succinct format. The poster summarizes research information in a concise and attractive visual layout to attract and engage audience, and to generate discussions.

As a researcher, you probably have faint memories of attending conferences and presenting your research printed on towering vinyl posters to other experts and enthusiasts, and kickstarting conversations that lead to ideas and collaborations that guide you to take the next step. How do you get the same benefits and experiences now? As with most other dilemmas, the technology has a solution for this as well. Through internet, most conferences are now moving online.

So what better way to tell share your research, than through virtual posters?

Bringing Your Research Online

Virtual posters are the best of both worlds: they have the details and attractive layout of a traditional research poster, the widely recognized format used in the academic community to communicate the research in a digestible format, and a dissemination-friendly format for ease of access and sharing. You can build your own virtual poster using any software as simple as PowerPoint or as detail rich as Adobe Suite.

Virtual Posters and their Benefits

•  All important information is understandable at a glance.
•  The poster leads with an attractive and catchy title to draw your audience’s attention.
• The textual content is kept to a minimum; imagery and visual elements dominate the scene and are used effectively to tell the complete story.
• As a bonus, a QR code redirects the reader to a webpage or your paper with further information about research findings or data sets.

But these posters aren’t limited to your conferences! These indispensable research dissemination assets can be shared on social media for promoting and further disseminating your research, for all your colleagues who couldn’t make it to the conference, and for the perusal of members of the general public who take an interest in your field. You can also use them to display your research on your website as an attractive visual alternative to just listing the citation of your paper.

The vaccine, and a potential end to the pandemic, is on the horizon, but for all intents and purposes, the culture has irreversibly shifted. Remote working culture is likely to continue for the unforeseen future. Your research is ready for the world, and you don’t need to hold it back any longer!

At Impact Science, we assist researchers with the creation of customized research communication solutions for your conference needs. Reach out to see how our virtual conference solutions can help you today!

***

For more information on Impact Science services, write to us at request@impact.science.

The post Make the Best of This New Virtual World with Virtual Posters appeared first on CACTUS.

Now for the uninitiated: so, what exactly is a podcast? A podcast is an audio programme, similar to a radio programme, that typically involves an easy-going but engaging conversation among people on a particular topic. A podcast series is usually hosted by one person, with one or more “guest” speakers on each episode. The conversational and (largely) informal style of communication suits the palate of the masses, rendering it among the easiest forms of content consumption. Most podcasts require no subscriptions and are freely available on most internet or app platforms—which means that they’re all readily accessible.

All of the above metaphorical ingredients make up an impeccable recipe for a public engagement strategy or even thematic content campaigns. One question: is it possible to have an engaging science/academic podcast, then? The answer is a resounding ‘YES’. In the following sections, we’ll see exactly how.

Podcasts and the Scientific Community

First let’s look at an example of how a podcast can help the scientific community.

“Scientific discourse is often belied as dry and stale; a block of indomitable, indecipherable information buttressed with vague language, passive voice, countless equations, and overly constructed, borderline-run-on statements that seem to drag on and on and on…”

Notice the problem with this statement? It suffers from the same issue that it describes. If a scientist communicates their science and no one understands it, has it actually been communicated?

The current pandemic has all but reinforced the long-buried notion: what science needs the most in modern times is effective communication and “storytelling.” Non-traditional content formats such as podcasts can help bridge this divide by virtue of their multimedia-friendly and conversational format.

So, the next question: Is anyone doing good science podcasts? If yes, how? The next half of this article attempts to answer these questions.

Popular Academic Podcasts

Ever since the turn of this century, academic podcasts have been explored, to varying extents. Quite a few studies have examined and verified the tremendous utility of podcasts in an academic setting—either from a coursework or discussion-related perspective or as a science communication tool. And over the years, several academic podcasts have gained widespread popularity, some of them even endorsed and run by national organizations and societies.

Here, I attempt to list some of the most popular academic podcasts, most of which are also widely available across popular platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.

• The University of Oxford Podcasts: One of the most exhaustive podcast series, the University of Oxford podcast features researchers and academicians from the university covering a wide range of topics, right from green chemistry, botany, and natural history to literature, calligraphy, and entrepreneurship.
• Pod Academy: Pod Academy is an independent, non-profit podcast platform established by enthusiastic academics, journalists, and IT professionals. With an engagement-oriented interface, the Pod Academy podcast covers intriguing new research topics from the fields of Arts and Culture, Business and Economics, Science and Environment, and Humanities and Social Sciences.
• The Naked Scientists: One of my personal favorites, The Naked Scientists is an award-winning science radio talk show broadcast in England by BBC and BBC Radio 5 Live and distributed worldwide on popular music and audio platforms as a science podcast. First started in 2001, the show deals with compelling and contemporary topics and hosts some exceptionally enthusiastic and eloquent researchers.
• Radiolab: One of the most revered podcasts around the world, the Radiolab podcast is an award-winning deep journalistic take on though-provoking topics in science, philosophy, and ethics. Radiolab is known for its unique sound design and compositions.
• Discovery by BBC World Service: BBC as a content platform needs no introduction. Check this podcast out for yourself.
• StarTalk by Neil DeGrasse Tyson: The StarTalk podcast network by world-renowned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson bridges the intersection between science, pop culture, and comedy with clarity, humor, and passion.

An Impact Science Collaboration: Podcasts by Brill

Impact Science recently collaborated with Brill—one of the largest publishers of humanities research in the world—to produce their fortnightly podcast, titled Humanities Matter by Brill. One of the few specialized podcasts run by any Humanities publisher, Humanities Matter by Brill, currently hosted by Leigh Giangreco, invites authors, journal editors, and researchers to talk about—using examples from their research and works—why it is crucial for society to continue investing in research in the humanities and social sciences. The podcast also enabled Brill to strengthen their #HumanitiesMatter campaign and blog, and also ensured far-reaching social media outreach!

Simple Guidelines for Podcast Production

How easy or difficult is it to actually produce a podcast? Well, the answer depends on the objective of the podcast and the desired end result. As the world is adjusting to the new normal of remote working, I will only touch upon the requirements for a remotely recorded podcast. Typically, setting up a science podcast would require:

• A research topic, book, or research manuscript — the basis of each episode
• An overarching theme or objective – to decide the reach, target audience, and budget
• A host for the podcast – Someone who loves talking to different people and is comfortable talking about a wide range of topics
• Recording essentials – A basic studio-quality microphone (preferable), a silent room, good internet connectivity
• Recording platform – Zencastr,  SquadCast, or even Zoom
• Audio editing tool – Hindenburg,  Audacity, or Adobe Audition
• Supporting text – Podcast description, graphical imagery, episode summaries, transcript availability, etc.
• A podcast content management tool – PodBean, Libsyn or Buzzsprout

Impact Science’s academic podcast production services can help you get started with your own research podcast. Impact Science possesses material and expertise in all of the essentials mentioned above. From scheduling podcast releases on different platforms to tracking podcast statistics such as number of listeners, number of downloads, user base specific to geography, etc. they’ve got it covered!

Intrigued by the prospect of having your own academic podcast yet? Get in touch with Impact Science at request@impact.science to know more!

***

Sources:

• Carina Rampelt. A beginner’s guide to academic podcasting. Available at: https://blog.globalacademyjobs.com/a-beginners-guide-to-academic-podcasting/. Accessed October 13, 2020
• Thomas Frank, 2020. Listen and Learn: The 40 Best Educational Podcasts in 2020. Available at: https://collegeinfogeek.com/best-podcasts/. Accessed October 13, 2020
• Peter Ractham and Xuesong Xhang, 2006. Podcasting in academia: a new knowledge management paradigm within academic settings. Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR conference on computer personnel research: Forty four years of computer personnel research: achievements, challenges & the future. Pages 314-317
• The Official PLOS Blog, 2016. The Importance of Storytelling in Science. PLOS Blogs. Available at: https://theplosblog.plos.org/2016/12/the-importance-of-storytelling-in-science/#comment-5510. Accessed October 13, 2020

The post Academic Podcasts: Let’s Hear It for A New Revolution in SciComm appeared first on CACTUS.

Scholarly publishing, meant for driving discovery and innovation, has ironically lacked innovation in terms of publishing and dissemination. The consumption of even cutting-edge research has been largely limited to the traditional long-form journal article with the odd article in the newspaper, as opposed to impacting society in the ways it was perhaps meant to.

While it is important that research published in journals doesn’t stray from what we know and are familiar with, the fact is that the format in which it is presented has largely remained the same for a while now. And, this does call for some thinking. For example, the need for limiting the number of articles in each issue seems at odds with how the consumption of published research largely happens online. But, that discussion is for another time. The focus here is research discoverability.

Although newer formats such as infographics and videos can supplement, as opposed to replacing the ‘research manuscript,’ they could also potentially help researchers to zero in on the specific aspects of their work. A good infographic, in that regard, can summarize an entire research paper and be consumed much faster than a 6000-word manuscript.

In other words, a researcher could browse through, say, 20 infographics much faster than the same number of manuscripts to decide on which study is more allied with their research interests.

The tweet below shows how a well-done infographic can visually summarize a study effectively.

How can you optimize chemical reactions more efficiently?
In our latest publication @ChemicalScience, we present an algorithmic workflow to optimize seven process parameters of a homogeneous catalytic system with minimal experimental effort.
https://t.co/tg2jXRqOYS pic.twitter.com/iH9UGXXadf

— Trapp Research Group (@TrappLab) November 13, 2019

The key is to use the right keywords and graphical design elements and keep the target audience in mind when designing the infographic.

The use of newer effective formats in research communication might aid in enhancing the discoverability of more relevant studies for researchers, especially those working in multidisciplinary fields. Infographics can help highlight the relevance of a finding, which is a lever of discoverability. There could be various other tools that could potentially be employed to influence various other levers of discoverability.

Think of why posters are used in conferences instead of a snapshot of an Abstract? It’s because visual and animated formats go a long way in not only communicating research and engaging the general public and audiences from associated fields but also help with the consumption of research output.

On a separate but related note, abstracts have seen some level of innovation with the emergence of graphical abstracts, video abstracts, and tweetable abstracts, to name a few. Importantly, abstracts are central to the discoverability of a study. These newer formats might have enhanced discoverability, but there is scope for improvement.

Video abstracts, for example, serve as “audio-visual summaries” of not just the abstract but the entire research paper along with practical applications. Examples of such video summaries are already out there in the public domain. This video on habitual toe-walking in children is a personal favorite.

I found this video to be particularly interesting because my nephew had this nagging habit of toe-walking and wouldn’t give it up! We were all concerned about how this habit would affect the development of his ankles. This video was quite reassuring, and as it turns out, my nephew did spontaneously cease toe-walking by the time he was 10! In short, this video is just one example of how more visual representations of research output can touch lives around the globe.

Video summaries of high-impact research papers or projects could even include the proposed impact on society and show how a study has achieved its goals in terms of making a difference to the world we live in.

This, in turn, would help enhance the “real-world impact” of research. Moreover, easy-to-understand research summaries encourage dissemination beyond the realms of traditional stakeholders within the scientific community. Dr. Pavlo Basilinskyy’s research on helping cars talk better to humans is a very good example of how video summaries can be employed to help funders effectively publicize the impact of the research they sponsor.

Furthermore, David Wojick, a consultant in the scholarly publishing industry, mentioned in passing that for these newer formats to gain more popularity and acceptance, they would have to be highly standardized—just as journal articles are—so people can quickly find the information they are looking for.

That said, it’ll be a while for these newer formats to gain a foothold in science communication. But given how these newer formats make a considerable difference when it comes to communicating real-life impact, it might be safe to say that science communication is ripe for a paradigm change.To find out more about how Impact Science helps journals, publishers and societies, click here.

Write to us at request@impact.science to learn how we can help your research come alive!

The post Newer content formats have the potential to redefine both discoverability and impact appeared first on CACTUS.

In the past year, “Open Access” has been one of the most hotly debated topics in the scholarly publishing industry. The announcement of guidelines for Plan S, responses from various stakeholders, and the resulting amendments have dominated the discourse for several months. In essence, the proponents of Open Access have been toiling hard to free scholarly publishing from the clutches of paywalls in the interest of democratizing access to science. But even the elimination of all paywalls might not solve the problem of discoverability of research completely.

There is a school of thought that contests the fact that there might be more factors than just mere paywalls that limit the reach and discovery of scientific content. Toby Green, ex-COO at OECD Publishing, while commenting on Open Access on the OSI listserv, offers the opinion that “One part of the Open Access debate has always made me uncomfortable: the assumption that the biggest barrier to being read is a paywall.”

This tweet by Roger Schonfeld, Director – Libraries, Scholarly Publishing, and Museums at Ithaka S+R, points to a study on the time spent by researchers for searching articles. The study in question was conducted by Elsevier and Sense about Science and has revealed surprising statistics that researchers now spend almost as much time searching for articles as actually reading them!

On average, researchers spend just over four hours searching for research articles a week and more than five hours reading them. More intriguingly, between 2011 and 2019, researchers have been reading 10% fewer articles but are spending 11% more time finding articles. The full article by Adrian Mulligan elaborating on this study can be read here on Research Information.

Further, with the exponentially increasing global research output and an increasing amount of research going Open Access, this problem is sure to exacerbate. The sheer number of results each search would deliver would be proportionately higher, and sifting through them would take longer than ever before. For example, recently, the American Chemical Society, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (German Chemical Society), and the Royal Society of Chemistry announced their partnership with the Chinese Chemical Society and the Chemical Society of Japan as co-owners to support the strategic and financial development of ChemRxiv, the premier preprint server for the global chemistry community.

Massive preprint servers, such as these, should make things easier for researchers, in that they wouldn’t have to search through dozens of different preprint servers. But would that really make things easier in terms of the time spent to zero in onto the right literature and reading it thoroughly to gauge relevance and impact remains to be seen. Imagine how much time authors would spend searching and shortlisting the right literature in such a massive database. In addition, if this leads to search and citation behavior that John Warner points out in this tweet, then these preprint consortiums of sorts might have to deal with a new problem.

The important point to be noted here is that publishing formats within scholarly publishing haven’t kept pace with the exponential increase in the number of papers being published worldwide. In the past few decades, scholarly publishing has witnessed the emergence of newer distribution platforms and channels through the Internet. But the basic output format—a text-heavy research article—has remained largely unchanged.

Hence, the Open Access movement might solve the issue of restricted access, but that alone might not enable scientists to make the most of access to research from around the globe. The need of the hour is for stakeholders in the scholarly publishing industry to complement Open Access with a focus on newer formats of research communication to enhance the discoverability of research. Better discoverability might help in driving more collaborations globally and give researchers more time to do what actually matters — more cutting-edge research!

Please share your views in the comments section below.

Write to us at request@impact.science or fill in your details below to learn how we can help your research come alive!

The post Discoverability is probably a bigger problem than paywalls appeared first on CACTUS.

If this sounds like it’s of interest to you, then the report on “The Role of Research in the UK Parliament” by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) is a must-read. The authors have interviewed MPs and their researchers, members of the House of Lords and parliamentary staff about how they engage with research and have analyzed several case studies of how research is used in different parliamentary processes.
The results are striking and, in some cases, surprising.

One thing that runs right through this report is the fundamental importance of credibility. Politicians and staff in parliament are assailed by information and opinions and are under a lot of time pressure to quickly cut through this to find what is relevant. The main heuristic they use is the credibility of the source – at least, as they perceive it. There are various ways to achieve credibility with a given audience, not all of them entirely reputable, but for academics, it’s quite clear that rigor, political independence, and academic esteem are the key markers to emphasize.

Another frequent refrain is the unsuitability of academic publications for the parliamentary audience. It doesn’t come as much surprise to learn that few MPs or parliamentary researchers have the time, inclination or skill set to struggle through page after page of densely written journal articles. The fact that some universities have woken up to this, and are now producing short, accessible policy briefings is welcomed, but it is clear that there is much more scope for plainly written research summaries, preferably augmented with graphics that provide greater immediacy and clarity.

Numbers are particularly valuable in these policy briefings, as the report emphasizes. They should make quantitative statements where possible: these are seen, rightly or wrongly, as more objective and reliable than qualitative information. Ideally, briefings should try to present the key number, that killer statistic that encapsulates the argument. The truth is, most parliamentarians aren’t particularly numerate, and that cuts both ways. It means the use of numbers should be as simple and accessible as possible, with liberal use of charts and graphics. But it also means that, if you can provide a simple, solid number-based argument, this will be particularly valued because few parliamentarians will feel equipped to contradict it.

The effectiveness of numerical argument as a rhetorical bludgeon was firmly established, of course, by Gordon Brown in his heyday as Chancellor of the Exchequer. I have had recourse to it myself, back when I had hair and was a City Councillor in Cambridge, and I can personally attest to its effectiveness. However, it does highlight one of the problematic aspects of this kind of engagement: nobody is interested in nuance or caveats, and the research that politicians do pick up may be used crudely, in ways that the original researchers find objectionable.

To some extent, this goes with the territory. Policy impact is inevitably a political process, and researchers may well find their work being misused, misinterpreted or unfairly dismissed. They may even dislike how their research is used by politicians who they basically agree with. That’s part of life when you get into influencing policy, and researchers venturing into the political arena have to be prepared for a little rough and tumble. The best advice, in my view, is to issue corrections if you feel that is necessary but to try to avoid getting drawn into political fights. Above all, researchers should be wary of being seen as politically partisan. As we saw above, credibility as an academic is a researcher’s fundamental currency, and nothing diminishes that credibility quite as much as being seen to have chosen a side.

One of the common pieces of advice you hear when people talk about having an impact via parliament is to engage with POST itself. It’s surprising, then, that the reach of POST within parliament turns out to be somewhat limited. (And it’s to the credit of POST, who published this report, that this point is not brushed aside). While POST is highly rated by those parliamentarians who make use of it, it turns out that most parliamentarians don’t bother: in this survey, only 21% of MPs and 19% of MPs’ staff reported using it. This is something of a shame, as the short briefings (POST Notes) and other resources POST provides are excellent, and greatly valued by those who read them. On the other hand, the Commons Library is much more widely used (by 78% of MPs and MPs’ staff), and is greatly respected as a source of research information. Researchers would be well advised to engage with the parliamentary libraries as well as with POST, in order to maximize the reach of their research within parliament. This is one of the useful and unexpected outcomes of this report.

The biggest factor in achieving successful parliamentary engagement, however, is also the hardest: aligning the engagement with parliamentary processes. In my experience, many researchers think that providing evidence to a select committee inquiry is good evidence of policy impact, but I’m doubtful that a REF sub-panel will see it that way. Anyone can provide evidence, which will be duly noted and published on the parliament website, but it’s unlikely to make a big difference to the outcome of the inquiry, still less to any change in policy. It’s much better, as this report makes clear, to get in at the start of a select committee inquiry while the questions are still being defined. This can provide a substantial influence on the outcome of the inquiry. Even better is acting as a specialist adviser for a select committee – but this is unlikely to happen without a substantial track record of effective engagement.

There’s a lot of detail in this report about interacting with parliamentary procedures, and it should be read carefully by anyone who wants to work directly with parliament to achieve impact. In reality, though, many researchers will be reluctant to invest the time and effort required to become au fait with this often obscure and arcane parliamentary business. Working through intermediaries can be a good solution to this problem. Many charities and other NGOs have considerable experience of working with parliament and have built up the required savvy. Engaging with these bodies, and working with them to present research results to parliament, can be easier and more effective than trying to go solo. But pick your partners with care. Credibility, as ever, is the most important thing, and that applies to partner organizations every bit as much as researchers.

Clarity, credibility, numbers, and timing. These are the keys to effective engagement with parliament and, with a little luck in traversing the fraught territory of politics, enabling research to make a real difference to public policy.

About Iain Coleman

Dr. Iain Coleman is the Research Engagement Manager at Impact Science. He has previously had an extensive career in UK Higher Education, having been Head of Impact and REF Support at Kingston University London, REF Manager at the Queen Mary University of London, and Science Writer at the University of Edinburgh. His own research background is in astrophysics and space science, having received a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Glasgow before undertaking postdoctoral research in solar-terrestrial physics at the British Antarctic Survey. However, his work in science writing and impact support has encompassed the full range of academic research, from particle physics and telecommunications to continental philosophy and experimental dance.

Write to us at request@impact.science or fill in your details below to learn how we can help your research come alive!

The post Politics and policy: achieving research impact through Parliament appeared first on CACTUS.