In today’s rapidly evolving research landscape, effective communication is more crucial than ever. In a recent podcast with Anthony Haynes of the Grey Lit Café, our Managing Director Rob Johnson discusses our history as a company and our work with a wide variety of actors in the research landscape – government bodies, funding agencies, universities, learned societies, publishers and software companies.
Drawing on over a decade’s experience in the worlds of academic publishing and knowledge exchange, Rob highlights three key insights into the effective communication of research, as follows:
- Infrastructure matters – Communication infrastructure, including platforms, standards, metadata, and licensing arrangements, provides the foundation on which everything else is built. Having a working knowledge of how these things operate, or knowing someone who does, such as a local librarian, is crucial to communicating effectively in a global context.
- Marketing matters – It may sound like a dirty word in the academic sphere, but people are far more likely to discover, read, and benefit from your work if proactive steps are taken to communicate it. This is one reason traditional publishers continue to play a crucial role in scholarly communication, as they take much of this burden off the author. However, speaking at conferences, writing blogs, creating plain language summaries, and using social media can all greatly increase the reach of your work.
- Incentives matter – What people choose to communicate and share is partly determined by individual preferences, but at a system-level, it all comes down to incentives. If a research system is desired where people communicate earlier, more openly, and using a wider range of formats, they need to be incentivized to do so. Otherwise, the result will be the same as it always has been.
As Rob explains, effective research communication is not just about disseminating information but also about engaging with the audience and creating a meaningful dialogue.
You can listen to the full podcast here.
To find out more about our work at Research Consulting take a look at our services and our past projects.