G E T N OT I C E D D I SS E M I N AT E YO U R R E S E A RC H BETTER 1 This table helps you understand how best you can use these tools to disseminate your research В Establish formal track record Broaden awareness & exposure Build network, find collaborators, find common interests Formal publications В Generate traffic to your personal site Improve SEO and ranking Increase article Increase reader- # of ship citations В В В В В В Books/Book chapters в—Џ В В В В В В Peer-reviewed journals в—Џ В В В В В В Monographs в—Џ В В В В В В Preprint в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ Digital academic repositories Institutional repositories в—Џ В В В В В В Open access repositories в—Џ В В В В В В Institutional communication channels В В В В В В В Press releases В в—Џ В В В В В Institutional newsletters В в—Џ В В В В В Research briefs В в—Џ В в—Џ В В В Face-to-face engagement В В В В В В В Presentations at conferences В В В В Posters and flyers (or research briefs) at conferences В в—Џ в—Џ В В В Social and digital media В В В В В В Facebook В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ В в—Џ В Twitter/Microblogging В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ В в—Џ В Google+ В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ В в—Џ В Linkedin В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ В в—Џ В Multifunctional academic social networks В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ В в—Џ В Blogging В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ Online resume landing pages В в—Џ В в—Џ в—Џ В В Personal website building В в—Џ В В Podcasts В в—Џ В в—Џ Photos on Picasa/Flickr/Pinterest В в—Џ В в—Џ YouTube, Vimeo В в—Џ В в—Џ Scribd online library В в—Џ В SlideShare В в—Џ В Online reference managers: В в—Џ В в—Џ В В В В В в—Џ В В в—Џ В В в—Џ в—Џ В в—Џ в—Џ В В В В В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ - Mendeley В В В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ - Zotero В В В в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ в—Џ Wikipedia В В В В В 2 в—Џ В В В В в—Џ В В в—Џ - CiteULike В В В В в—Џ В В в—Џ В в—Џ В Get Noticed. Disseminate your research better. How? Use the many powerful online tools and traditional print methods of research dissemination to expand the communication of your research findings to an extensive global network of academic peers. By disseminating your research more effectively, you: пЃЎ Establish a formal track record пЃЎ Build your network and find collaborators with common interests пЃЎ Generate traffic to your personal site пЃЎ Improve your siteвЂ™s search engine optimization (SEO) and ranking пЃЎ Increase article readership пЃЎ Increase the number of citations of your work Formal publications Books or Book chapters Writing a book or contributing a chapter in a book is a clear way to demonstrate your knowledge and research findings and to establish a solid reputation within your field. Then, use several of the online tools mentioned here to further broadcast your book or book chapter. Peer-reviewed journals In addition to writing books or book chapters is publishing articles in reputable peer-reviewed journals, as in one of ElsevierвЂ™s many journals. Journals have loyal readers within the given academic field, so publishing in a journal is a strong way to get noticed. As with websites, you can optimize your journal articles for search engines using top keywords relevant to your article and research field throughout your article. Explore the Google AdWords keyword tool for how you can find which words to use for search engine optimization (SEO). Monographs Publications, including the monograph, boost your resume or curriculum vitae (CV) and acknowledgement. A monograph is a medium for you to clearly demonstrate your strong research and expertise on a particular topic, either in book or article form. As with any book or article you publish, you can share a monograph in your academic social networks, such as on ResearchGate, or via links on your website, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. 3 Preprint A preprint is the version of your research article before being peer-reviewed and edited for publication. You can use preprint to help generate early awareness about your research findings within your academic network. With many publishers, authors are allowed to use a preprint for self-archiving. You should check which publishers allow preprints to be self-archived. Elsevier is one that permits preprints except its Cell Press and The Lancet. Digital academic repositories Institutional repositories Many higher educational institutions have established institutional repositories where theses, dissertations, reports and other publications of academics affiliated with the institution are kept and archived digitally. Users of the institutional repositories can digitally browse a database of such repositories for various research findings as in a traditional library. Repositories pave the way for wider distribution of your work. Disciplinary Repositories As the name indicates, disciplinary repositories are repositories which cater to archiving publications within a particular discipline. There are numerous such repositories available online for specific disciplines. Disciplinary repositories are not limited to researchers from a particular institution, as is the case with institutional repositories. Publications in disciplinary repositories can be easily accessed online and website crawling engines like CiteSeerx actively search the Internet to gather scholarly publications to add to its database. Thus, open-access publications (accessible without payment or subscription) are the most retrieved and indexed. Disciplinary repositories strongly complement institutional repositories and broaden the exposure and indexing of your research articles. Examples of disciplinary repositories include arXiv.org and PubMed Central. Institutional communication channels Press releases Press releases can be in either print or on the web these days and itвЂ™s best if it is both. Press releases are used to announce events or publications, or other newsworthy information. When you publish a book or an article, writing a press release and distributing it to online and print academic sources relevant to your field, is a smart way to attract attention to your work. Links to the press releases can be shared on your blog, in academic social networks, LinkedIn, Facebook and all of the other social media outlets as well. 4 Institutional newsletters If you are affiliated with a particular institution, chances are that it publishes one or more newsletters for its constituents. Contributing articles on your research or announcing a new publication are perfect for the newsletter. You can easily increase the readership of your work within the institution this way. Research briefs Research briefs offer a concise overview of your research and can be shared through many offline and online methods. Research briefs can be shared in institutional newsletters, for instance, or referenced via your website and social media. Research briefs give readers simplified information about the research, enough to entice them to read the publications further. Face-to-face engagement Presentations at conferences Giving a presentation at a conference is a clear way to be recognized. You bring greater awareness to who you are and to your work. In todayвЂ™s age when so much is done through the Internet, it is valuable to meet fellow academics face-to-face at conferences. Presenting at conferences and networking personalizes your work by giving your work a вЂ�faceвЂ™ and a вЂ�voiceвЂ™. Attendees will continue to associate that positive impression and relationship with your research. Networking in person is key to successfully disseminating your research and to possibly opening up new opportunities to collaborate with others who have common research interests. Add new contacts on LinkedIn, connect on ResearchGate, and tell them about your website and blog. Posters and flyers Creating an attractive poster for a conference, possibly accompanied with some flyers, can be useful in communicating about your research. You can also modernize the usage of posters and flyers by posting them online and providing links in several of the online outlets available today. (Also see: Elsevier WebShop for posters creation) Social and digital media Facebook Facebook is a popular social media tool, but you can leverage it for professional purposes as well. You can share photos, status updates and links regarding your research with all of your вЂ�friendsвЂ™ on Facebook. You can also join groups 5 which may be available for your field of expertise and connect with other likeminded research professionals. Get started: пЃµMake your Facebook page more professional by adding links to your publications, website, blog, podcasts, Twitter feed, and more. Update вЂ�friendsвЂ™ about your ongoing research and professional ambitions. Invite fellow researchers and academics to be a friend. пЃµGo a step further and create a Facebook вЂ�fanвЂ™ page for your research and professional endeavors, if you want to keep your regular profile for only informal, social purposes. пЃµEnsure you adjust your regular profile security settings accordingly, since so much can be accessed from your Facebook through simple search engine searches. It is good to do this regardless of whether you keep a separate fan page. Twitter Twitter is technically a microblogging site, but it is addressed separately here given its popularity. Twitter gives you a chance to share quick thoughts, statements and announcements with followers, using no more than 140 characters. It is a great way to share your current research, publications and links to new blog posts with others. You can follow other researchers and thereby increase your own following. Google+ Google+ is a type of social networking site bringing together many elements from the different social media sites. It is still in the early stages of operation. It is more sophisticated and enables you to have different layers of interaction with different users, such as between colleagues or friends. If you have an account with Google e-mail or any of GoogleвЂ™s products already, then you can expand your account to be a Google+ account. It is useful for interacting with fellow research professionals around the globe. LinkedIn LinkedIn is a networking site for professionals in academia and industry. Since it is widely used, it is highly ranked in search engines; this helps you build a stronger online presence. You can showcase your work to your connections by creating an up-to-date and detailed profile (just like in a CV). You can post your latest accomplishments, research findings and links to your articles. You can also join research groups that interest you and connect to other like-minded research professionals. 6 Multifunctional Academic Social Networks 1 There are several online academic social networks offering multifunctional uses, ranging from academic networking to online reference management, research announcement and research sharing, to organization of your publications, to facilitating opportunities to virtually collaborate on projects with other like-minded researchers. These purely academic and researchfocused sites are a must for any serious and ambitious scholar. To get started on these sites, simply create an account and start exploring. The most reputable sites include: Mendeley, myExperiment, SelectedWorks, Academia. edu, ResearchGate, CiteULike and Zotero. Many of the sites offer handy tools, such as analytics, so you can see how many have viewed your profile or downloaded your papers. Microblog Microblogging is the shorter form of blogging, but not as short as writing tweets on Twitter, which is limited to 140 characters. Thus, microblogging is also an effective way to announce research and publications and to attract attention to your website and blog. You can often attach documents, images or videos to your microblogging posts. Get started: пЃµSign up for free with one of the popular microblogging tools, such as: Tumblr and Plurk. Blog 2 Blogs are proven to be effective in disseminating your research and having a larger impact. You can promote in-depth conversation via your blog. You build credibility by sharing information and responding to feedback from other researchers. Create a blog and write regular blog updates to tell about your research undertakings and other related topics of interest to you. Provide links to your Elsevier and other journal articles and publications. Readers can follow and subscribe to your posts and leave comments. Get started: пЃµRegister with one of the several blogging websites and start designing your website. Invite friends and colleagues from your network to follow your blog. Comment on othersвЂ™ blogs to increase traffic back to your blog. Here are some of the most popular sites offering simple-to-use blogging platforms: Blogger, WordPress, Weebly, Posterous, TypePad and MovableType. 7 Online Resume Landing Pages 3 A shortened version of a personal website is a resume or curriculum vitae (CV) landing page. Get started: пЃµRegister at one of the popular resume landing sites, such as re.vu. If you have a LinkedIn account, this website uses the information from your LinkedIn page to create a website which you can then edit. All you need to get started is to create a login and password at re.vu. There are basic themes available for free and more if you pay to upgrade. Personal website Create a personal professional website highlighting your research findings, achievements, publications and ambitions. A website is a very detailed virtual resume or curriculum vitae (CV). Share links to your website in your e-mail signature and on all of your online and social media profiles to get maximum exposure. You can also add links to your academic social networks, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other accounts to your website. Get started: пЃµPick a url at which to register your website. Try your name or a combination of initials and last name. You can check availability of urls and register them on sites such as: GoDaddy, Register.com and DomainRegistry.com. Registering a url is never free, but it is low cost and worth it. пЃµOnce you have registered a url, you can start creating your website. It does not have to take a lot of time or technical knowledge, because there are several platforms where you can get started. Sites include: Jibr, WordPress, Weebly, Blogger, Yola and Jigsy. пЃµNot all websites offer hosting, but Jibr, WordPress, Blogger and Yola are among those that do. If a platform does not offer hosting, you will have to find another source for this and it will also cost money. пЃµOptimize your website using a combination of the Google AdWords keyword tool and Google Analytics. You can use certain keywords to increase the number of visitors who find your page through search engine searches. This process of tailoring the words to increase visits is called search engine optimization (SEO). Podcasts 4 Podcasts offer more variety than sites like YouTube or Vimeo in that you can upload audio only files and other document types, in addition to video. Podcasts are most often used to make a series of audio recordings. You can use 8 podcasts to broadcast your lectures, presentations, or to create a series of narratives on your research, for example. Popular sites offering access to podcasts include: iTunes, Yahoo, Podcast Directory, Podcast Alley and iPodder.org. Photo Sharing Share photos from academic events with sites like Picasa and Flickr. To get started on these sites, you only need to create a login and password. Add links to your website and other online media to photos from important academic events and avoid sharing photos that are too personal. Video Sharing Share videos of your research findings, conference presentations, a lecture, or of you giving an explanation on a topic within your expertise. Make it professional in appearance and share it on sites, such as YouTube or Vimeo. To get started, just create a login and password and you can start sharing your academic videos. Scribd Scribd is essentially an online library allowing registered users to upload, publish and share documents with others. Scribd is great for academics and nonacademics alike. It is a good way to share, or even sell, your research briefs, abstracts, presentations or full publications. You can upload documents without an account, but it is best to create a login and password to get started. SlideShare SlideShare is a useful website for sharing your presentations, documents and videos. Following a conference or lecture, for instance, attendees may want to browse through your presentation slides again and SlideShare offers you an easy way to do that. You can choose to share your documents privately with one person or a few individuals, or make it publicly available to any SlideShare user. You can also share links to your SlideShare documents on a variety of social media tools. Wikipedia Wikipedia is the well-known free online encyclopedia where registered users can create and edit entries. Not everyone can have a Wikipedia page. Once you have established a name for yourself and published several books and articles and have gained a solid reputation in your research field, you have a better chance of successfully obtaining a Wikipedia page. The Wikipedia page would highlight your background, profile, accomplishments, publications and any other relevant information. Having been cited by many other sources also increases your chances of being able to create a Wikipedia page. Wikipedia has many guidelines for how to write a Wikipedia entry, so check its website for more details. 9 Conclusion Getting noticed today means using the abundant online and social media tools available to better disseminate your research findings and publications to a wider audience of researchers. As a result, not only will your research become more visible, but you will also attain more readers, increase citations, build a stronger reputation and expand your professional network with researchers. Efforts you make online today will make you stronger offline tomorrow. 10 References http://chronicle.com/article/Social-Networks-for-Academics/131726/ http://lifehacker.com/5568092/five-best-blogging-platforms and http:// www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-blog-sites-wordpress-blogger/ 3 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402773,00.asp 4 http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Directory.html 1 2 11