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Increase research visibility

Ways to increase research visibility

To attract the attention it deserves, your high quality research needs to be easy to find. Research shows that the activities listed can improve discoverability and increase citations. They are not intended to be a checklist and some activities may be more appropriate for your discipline than others.

Starting your research

Get an ORCiD. Use it proactively to connect to your research outputs and increase discoverability. Make sure you use it whenever you share your work, for example when you submit a manuscript or publish a dataset. Put it on your personal profiles on the web and social media. This will connect you to your research across the web whatever search tool people are using.

Identifying the specific topics within your field that generate a high level of interest can help to attract future collaborators and in turn increase visibility and impact.

Consider your collaborations. Research shows that papers with more than one author receive more citations. International collaborations can be particularly valuable. Approaches to collaboration will differ between disciplines.

During your research

Present research findings at conferences and, where appropriate, at international congresses. Attending such events also provides opportunities for networking and developing new collaborations.

Use social media and networks to promote your research and reach a wider audience. This can include an audience beyond your own discipline. Examples include ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Twitter

Curate your data and consider what you will share during and at the end of your research.

When you decide where to publish (journal articles)

Who is your audience and what is the best way to reach them? Are you looking to influence policy? Do you want to reach specialists outside of your own discipline? Are you looking to publish in an established journal or would alternative venues offer a better fit?

These resources can help you decide where to publish:

  • Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Allows you to compare journals indexed in the Web of Science (PDF) using citation data. JCR can show you the highest impact journals in your field.
  • SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR) is a free database based on Scopus data. It provides a prestige metric (SJR) based on the quality and reputation of journals. It is included in Scopus Journal Metric (PDF).
  • Scopus "compare sources" allows you to sort journal titles in a subject area by impact values. Use it to identify high impact journals within the Scopus database. This tool allows you to compare journals according the CiteScore, SJR or SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper).

Consider the open access options offered by your chosen journal. What are their article processing charges (or other publication fees)? Do they permit you to deposit your author accepted manuscript in a repository? If it is a hybrid journal is it part of a Plan-S transitional agreement?

How discoverable is your chosen journal? Is it indexed by major databases like Web of Science and Scopus? Does it allocate a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)? A DOI ensures a persistent link that can be cited and tracked.

When you publish

Wherever possible, ensure your research output has a clear title that is direct and concise. This can help promote readership and attract citations from beyond your own discipline.

Think about writing a plain language summary of your research that is understandable to a non-specialist audience. This could be members of the public or researchers from other disciplines. Kudos is a good free tool to publish these or you can set up your own blog. You could also write for The Conversation.

Carefully consider your keywords and include them in your abstract and full text. This will help a reader better understand your content. It may also improve the visibility of your research in search results.

Consider your references. Authors you cite may become future collaborators and may cite you in turn.

Be consistent with your chosen name format so that all relevant papers can be attributed to you. For example, don’t use Elizabeth Jones in one paper and Liz Jones or L M Jones in another. Using your ORCID will also help with this.

Include the standard institutional affiliation “University of Leeds” on all research outputs. Avoid using abbreviations or only including your School, Faculty or research group.

Add your research outputs to Symplectic as soon as possible after acceptance. They will be made open access via the White Rose Research Online repository in line with any embargo

After your research

Make your data findable and citeable from a repository. This can lead back to your original research or to your other work. Use Re3data.org to identify a suitable service for your discipline. The Research Data Leeds repository is available to all Leeds staff.

Find out more about research data management

Consider publishing in a data journal. Practice around disseminating research data is evolving. Data journals offer another route to making data more discoverable and citable. They are often based on data deposited in a data repository and involve some level of peer review.

The University of Edinburgh maintain a list of data journals and their policies.

Continue to disseminate your research outputs on social media. Track social engagement with the Altmetric "donut" on the publication record in White Rose Research Online.