In the years before COVID-19, the most common way for researchers and students to present their work was by attending conferences, such as the national ACS spring or fall meetings. At these occasions, students and postdocs could present their work, share their experiences, and get feedback from experts. It was not only an opportunity for professional development, but also for their research to be properly noticed and appreciated.
But this situation has changed a lot in the last two years. Most conferences are now virtual (online). Due to this, fewer people pay attention to the posters and presentations of students and postdocs. Opportunities for personal discussions have reduced a lot. Now, even if some conferences are in hybrid mode (both online and offline), many sessions still have low attendance. Therefore, researchers need to adopt new ways so that their work can reach the right people and make an impact on future research.
In this article, we will look at how you can increase the visibility of your research. We will cover this in two parts:
- Pre-submission
- Post-publication
Pre-submission
When you are preparing your research paper, think about how most researchers find new work. Nowadays, the main search methods for researchers are the Internet and search engines.
Search engines look for clues in your paper to figure out what your work is about. These clues can be your title, abstract, and links or references to papers you have cited in your paper.
So, when you write the paper, discuss with your co-authors what keywords they would use if they were searching for your research. Include these keywords in your title and abstract.
Note: Include keywords in a natural way. Don’t try to force it everywhere. Your abstract should be easy to read so that readers will read it carefully and delve deeper into your research.
Search engines don’t understand literary styles, sarcasm, or irony. So, keep your title simple, clear, and directly related to the topic.
Once your paper starts appearing in online search results, you also need to make sure that readers click on it.
The title is the first thing that appears in search engines. It is followed by the first three or four authors and the name of the journal. Then the abstract portion shows the keywords searched for. So, it is very important that you think about how people will search for your work and include those keywords in the abstract.
Graphical Abstract
Some journals, such as ACS, ask for a graphical abstract. It presents a visual summary of the main findings of your paper. If you have a good design sense or a friend can help, go for it. Simple and clear graphics make your research attractive and motivate readers to dig deeper.
Preprint and Keyword Experimentation
Once your initial draft is ready, you can post it on a preprint server like ChemRxiv. This allows you to get feedback and improve the paper first. Also, you can see which keywords increase the searchability of your paper.
If your work is very important and may be of interest to the public, you can discuss a press release with your publisher. But note, this rarely happens for research papers.
Post-publication
Your paper is now published. Congratulations! Publishers usually send your article to readers who have subscribed to the journal’s alerts. It is also sent to indexing services like DOAJ, Web of Science, SCOPUS, PubMed Central for easier searching.
But there are other steps you can take beyond this:
- Send a polite email to your mentors, colleagues, and researchers you have cited in your paper and share the link to your paper.
- You can even add it to your email signature.
Data Sharing
- Post data files related to your paper in repositories and add the link to your paper.
Social Media
- Share your research on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
- Use a couple of relevant hashtags.
- Use graphical abstracts.
- Focus on building a following on Twitter so your tweets reach more people.
International Platforms
- Social media preferences may vary in different countries.
- WeChat in China and Kakao Story in Korea are popular.
- If you want to reach researchers in these countries, check them out too.
Scientific Social Media Sites
- Post your abstracts (text and graphical) on these platforms.
- Always add the link to the full-text paper.
Institutional Profile and ORCID
- Post the link on your institution’s website.
- Create ORCID and Google Scholar profiles.
- If you have posted a preprint, link it to the final paper.
Blogs and Class Readings
- If your paper is on a specific topic, share it as a guest post on a relevant blog.
- Also add it to your class reading list.
Precautions and Tips
- Open access papers may seem easy to share across platforms, but can be difficult to track. It is best to share only links.
- Services like Altmetric only count links to published papers.
- If sharing full text, ask for copyright permission.
- Many publishers offer infographics, videos, and plain language summaries. While these are not always free, they are helpful for sharing on social media.
Conference and Poster Presentations
As we return to post-pandemic times, in-person conferences are returning. There are also many hybrid options available. Keep sharing research in your posters or lectures. ACS SciMeetings now offers DOIs for posters, which links directly to your paper.
Conclusion
Making a research paper discoverable starts when you start writing it. But there is a lot to do even after it is published.
With the right planning, consistent practice, and patience, you can make your research accessible to more people. Make your paper simple and attractive, choose the right keywords, use social media and email, and increase the visibility of your work.
