This document discusses the challenges of research communication and visibility in today's information-overloaded world. It proposes that researchers should play a more active role in promoting their own work through tools that help explain and share their research. The document introduces KUDOS, a web-based service that aims to put researchers in control of increasing the impact of their published articles. KUDOS would provide tools for researchers to add plain English descriptions and link their articles to related materials to improve discoverability. It would also help researchers share their articles through their networks and measure the effects on article usage and citations. KUDOS dashboards would give researchers and institutions visibility into these outreach activities.

1. Whose job is it anyway?
Changing roles and responsibilities for research communication
Melinda Kenneway, Executive Director, KUDOS
@melindakenneway
@growkudos

2. a definition
communication
kəmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n
The imparting or exchanging of
information by speaking, writing,
or using some other medium.

4. The visibility challenge
In the world today there are
50 million
published research articles1
2 million
more published every year
1 Annual Reviews white paper - The Role of the Critical Review Article
in Alleviating INFORMATION OVERLOAD, 2011

5. Publisher
communications
Distribution
- print and mail
- online platforms
Discoverability
- metadata
- SEO
Direct marketing
- SEM
- email
- events
- eTOCs
- display advertising
- social media marketing
- influencer marketing
Media relations

6. http://www.heatherdoran.net

7. http://www.heatherdoran.net
content
marketing

8. Content
marketing
“Content marketing is all
that marketing’s got left.”
Seth Godin
From interruption
to persuasion
• Entertainment
• Storytelling
• Advocacy
• Infographics
• Video
• White papers
Rich ideas that can be reused

9. Content
marketing
“Content marketing is all
that marketing’s got left.”
Seth Godin
The 5 Ss of
marketable
content
• Searchable
• Shareable
• Supportive
• Specialist
• Sustainable

10. Who is best placed to do
‘content marketing’ for research?

11. 51%
33%
6%
10%
Could be somewhat
improved
Could be significantly
improved
Could not be improved
I don’t know
How do researcher feel about current levels of
visibility, usage and impact?
11
n = 3,669
84% of authors
think there is room
for improvement
To what extent do you think more could be done to
increase the visibility, usage or impact of your articles
on or after publication?

12. No – there are no staff
specifically responsible for this
at my institution
I don't know
Yes – press office
Yes – other dedicated staff at
a central level
Yes – staff at a central level,
but not exclusively dedicated
to this
Yes – dedicated staff at a
faculty level
Yes – staff at a faculty level,
but not exclusively dedicated
to this
Do researchers get support from their institutions?
12
Does your institution have staff specifically responsible for helping
researchers increase and/or demonstrate the impact of their research?
NO
YES
n = 3,630

13. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Me Publisher /
society
My co-
authors
Institution's
PR team
Research
support
staff
Library /
repository
staff
Funder
1 (least responsibility)
2
3
4
5
6
7 (most responsibility)
Who should have responsibility for increasing
levels of visibility, usage and impact?
13
Authors want
more of a role
in promoting
their work
n = 3,410
Please rate the following for how much responsibility you think they should have
for ensuring your articles are as widely read and cited as possible:

14. A web-based service that helps
increase the impact of research
and build academic reputations
researchers  universities  publishers  funders

15. KUDOS puts researchers
in the driving seat
tools to improve the impact of their work

16. KUDOS helps universities,
funders and publishers
amplify research impact

17. Author expertise
Step one: leveraging authors’ expertise
Kudos enables authors to ‘supercharge’ published articles
Adding plain English descriptions of their work
Linking to related digital objects: videos, data, images
To make articles more discoverable
(more keywords, more interconnected with wider web)
To make articles easier to appraise and interpret
Linking back to the publisher site to increase usage and citations

18. Author networks
Step two: leveraging authors’ networks
Kudos provides authors with templates and trackable links
to share articles via social media and email
(increasing discoverability)
and measure resulting article performance improvement with article
level metrics
(incentivising ongoing usage of the tools)
Linking back to the publisher site to increase usage and citations

19. How it works: researcher tools
Step 3: measure
Step 1: explain
Step 2: share
KUDOS PUBLICATION PROFILE PAGE

20. How it works: researcher dashboard

21. Aggregating effort
Step three: leveraging institutional relationships
Kudos gives visibility to publishers, societies, universities and funders of
researcher outreach activities and tools to amplify this.
Kudos will work with publishers, societies, funders and institutions to help
strengthen relationships with their research communities.

22. How it works: institutional dashboard

23. Mark Thorley
Chair, RCUK Research Outputs Network
We have to recognize that
dissemination of research
results is not an add-on …
it is core to the process of
research.

24. The research
process

26. Thank you!
Melinda Kenneway
Executive Director, Kudos
melinda@growkudos.com
@growkudos
@melindakenneway