Maximising the impact of your paper: How to reach the audiences that matter
Publishing your paper is a significant achievement, not only a personal milestone but also a contribution to advancing science.
Creating a meaningful and lasting impact with your paper may require additional effort and the development of new skills. This doesn’t always come naturally to researchers, but promoting and showcasing the impact of your work is increasingly important.
Beyond personal fulfillment, many research funders now expect you to demonstrate measurable real-world impact and provide evidence of how it was achieved.
"This course will help you navigate the vast landscape of options for promoting your paper, which can be overwhelming, and it shows you the pros and cons of each option.”
Wade Petersen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town
The importance of building your brand
Promoting your paper can be a challenging prospect. As many scientists will agree, self-promotion doesn’t always come easily.
"Promoting your work is important as it allows you to build a fanbase around your work so people can follow your trajectory and the science around it.”
Kizzmekia S. Corbett-Helaire, Associate Professor, Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health
It takes a lot of hard work to achieve the visibility you need for your research. But however daunting this may seem, there are skills and methods you can easily learn which will help you gain maximum exposure and reach the right audiences for your work.
These skills are crucial not only for researchers getting their work known, but for the dissemination of science as a whole.
Nature Masterclasses has created a new course for the many researchers out there who want to learn more about building research impact. Maximising the Impact of your Paper takes a fresh and holistic approach both to promoting your research paper and tracking its impact.
Publishing is the start of a whole new journey
The latest in Nature Masterclasses’ writing and publishing learning pathway, Maximising the Impact of your Paper continues the publishing journey following Writing a Research Paper: 2nd Edition and Publishing a Research Paper: 2nd Edition. It’s an engaging on-demand course suitable for researchers at all stages in their careers.
If this is the first paper you’re publishing, the course will equip you with all you need to know about promoting it successfully. And even if you’re a seasoned author with several papers to your name, there’s always more you can do - if you know how.
“Publishing a paper is not an end point. It’s actually a starting point, to trigger potential future opportunities for collaborations and investigations, and to build up your own research profile which is important if you want to conduct independent research in the future.”
Xun Zou, Atmospheric scientist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego
Maximising the Impact of your Paper covers the entire process involved in promoting your work. Starting with an exploration of the many types of impact, the course develops by considering promotional strategies and then how to track the resulting impact achieved.
Key takeaways from the course
Maximising the Impact of your Paper simplifies every stage of the process, giving you confidence in what you want to achieve, and how to go about it.
Once you’ve completed the course, you’ll know how to:
- Understand what research impact means, and why it’s important to promote your paper
- Generate effective communications for maximum visibility and engagement
- Create innovative strategies to showcase your research findings globally to academics, journalists, policymakers, and the public
- Track your paper’s reach and impact, using tools, data and metrics across diverse platforms.
Flexible learning, practical advice
The course consists of eight self-study modules. Each individual lesson is deliberately short so you can dip in and out, fitting your learning in between other tasks as you work.
Depending on your experience, you can follow the entire course from start to finish, which might take you around 1.5 hours. Or you can jump directly to a topic that interests you.
There are real-life examples to keep you engaged, and interactive activities to test your understanding as you go.
Hands-on advice from international experts
This engaging course was developed and refined by an international panel of experienced editors and prominent and up-and-coming researchers. Representing a wide range of backgrounds, geographical locations and career levels, they provide a broad perspective maximising and tracking the impact of your paper. Helping create the course are:
Kizzmekia S. Corbett-Helaire, Associate Professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jan Eldrige, Head of Physics, University of Auckland
Additional experts in scientific communication, with a broad range of perspectives on promoting research and measuring impact, also offer their insights:
Euan Adie, Founder and Director, Overton
Lisa Boucher, Press Manager, Springer Nature
Harith Farooq, Lecturer, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Lúrio University
Zoltan Ferhervari, Senior Editor, Nature
Wade Petersen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town
Xun (Jerry) Zou, Atmospheric scientist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego
Giving researchers the support they need throughout the research lifecycle
Maximising the Impact of your Paper is the perfect grounding for researchers seeking real impact for their work.
“There’s no point in doing science unless people actually use, read and learn from your work. This course shows you how to reach the widest possible audience and get them interested in what you do in science.”
Jan Eldrige, Head of Physics, University of Auckland
Available companion courses also include Effective Science Communication and Building a Strong Online Researcher Profile.
Nature Masterclasses strives to offer relevant and practical support to the research community at all stages of their academic careers. Acquiring such new perspectives and broadening their skills will help give researchers the edge in today’s competitive research environment.