Measuring and Increasing Your Research Impact

ResearchGate is a very large (originally German) researcher community linking researchers around research topics. You can choose which topics or researchers to follow. You can automatically populate your publications list, add items from reference management tools, or add items manually. You can even upload and share full text publications (e.g. last author versions that many publishers allow you to share).

Go to Researchgate, sign up and complete your profile, then add your publications by following the instructions. Then select the topics you wish to follow, if any.

All pre-pub full text publications uploaded to Researchgate profiles are indexed by Google Scholar – which can increase exposure of your published articles that lay behind pay walls.

More about ResearchGate.

Open Mendeley (login not required) and search an article or subject using the search link in the top bar. For each article, the number of Mendeley users that have added this paper to their Mendeley library ('readers') is shown underneath the information about the article. When you click on the article's title, more information on readership statistics is displayed.

If you create an account, you can use Meneley as a reference management system, as well as upload your articles to let the user community have access. In addition, you can join a social network group that is interested in your research topic, e.g., “Scholarly communication and the role of libraries and librarians” and share articles, questions and commentary amongst the group.

• SlideShare

  A free online tool for uploading and sharing slide presentations. The number of downloads of your slides can be tracked and used as an alternative measure of research impact.
• Figshare

  Provides free, unlimited public space to upload files in any format to be visualized in a browser. Share such research products as figures, datasets, posters and presentations.
• Twitter

  Twitter can be used to share links and short messages with a large online community. Twitter is increasingly being used as a communication tool within research communities and as a tool to connect with potential collaborators at professional conferences and meetings.
• Vimeo

  Vimeo is a free online service for sharing and uploading video content.
• WordPress

  A free, easy-to-use web-based software for the creation of websites and blogs.

Academic Search Engine Optimization

• Select strong keywords or phrases and synonyms to your article, using publisher guidelines if applicable
• Write a punchy, short title (~7-8 words)
• Include one or two keywords in the first 70 characters
• Use keywords in main text and the headings
• ABSTRACT: First Two Sentences / Use keywords 3-6 times; Place essential finding in first two sentences

Keywords

• Look at your article from three perspectives;
  • Context/ focus/ topic of study
  • Purpose/ target/ motivation of study
  • Study's research approach

# Any version can be shared for teaching or proposals

# Submitted version (not published version, because publisher hasn’t added value yet) can be shared via your personal website or institutional repository. You may also share via scholarly collaboration networks that have agreed to article sharing principles (Mendeley – yes; ResearchGate– no)

#  Accepted manuscript (prior to publication):

• 12 -month embargo period before sharing is allowed

• Before embargo, can be shared within private, closed groups

• After embargo, can be shared w/ notice on 1st page, like: “This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: [FULL CITE], which has been published in final form at [Link to article using the DOI]. This may be used for  non -commercial purposes in accordance with [Publisher's] Conditions for Self-Archiving.”