Socialising Research: How to get your research results noticed and used.

Research impact is a rapidly emerging trend that academics can no longer afford to ignore.

Scholars have always been concerned about the impact of their research within the academy. Reputations and careers are built on the authority that results from a body of influential work.

But things are changing. Today academics are facing increasing pressures from governments and funding bodies to rethink the ways in which they conceptualise research impact.

I recently attended an IAS masterclass on Socialising Research in which Professor Robyn Owens (@robynowens), UWA’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research,  offered  insights into the rapidly evolving Australian research landscape and outlined ways to get research results noticed and used within the academy and beyond. It is no coincidence that this was the second conference on research effectiveness that I have attended within a month at UWA!

The focus on research impact is based on three principles.
•    Universities create knowledge
•    Knowledge has value
•    Research is publicly funded and should be shared

The academy has not always approached knowledge in this way. 
Professor Owens offered the marvellous example of mathematician G. H. Hardy who wrote the 1940 essay ‘A Mathematician's Apology’. For, Hardy, the best kind of intellectual theory had no real life application at all. The ideal of ‘pure knowledge’ was seen to reflect the highest calling of the academy. Hardy died in 1947, so luckily he will never know that the number theory he developed is now a fundamental part of internet banking security systems!

Academics solve problems.
When Professor Owens asked how we saw ourselves as researchers, the answers reflected our disciplines. We were ‘historians’, ‘anthropologists’ and ‘linguists'. She reminded us that a discipline is merely a set of rules that a group of scholars use to solve problems. For example, the problem of obesity is tackled very differently across the disciplines of Law, Politics, Sports Science, Urban Planning and Psychology. I love this structural inversion. Our role as researchers often involves questioning conventional wisdom, yet we often fail to examine the institutional logics we work within.

The political landscape of academia is changing.
Australian funding bodies are increasingly influenced by European impact agendas, including the UK’s “Pathways to Impact” which I wrote about in a previous blog post. In 2010 the Australian Research Council (ARC) launched the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative which evaluates the quality of research by Australian universities. Fields of research at each university are ‘scored’ as being above or below ‘world standard’ using a combination of metric evaluation and peer review. A contentious process!

The research impact of individual researchers has traditionally been measured by the extent to which their research has influenced the advancement of their discipline. This can be indicated by the quality of the journal in which work is published, reviews and reactions, article downloads and patents – however is generally measured by the number of citations the work receives.

While the number of times fellow academics reference your work provides a helpful indication of impact, the system has many limitations. A high number of citations is not proof of research quality in itself. The statistic is also notoriously difficult to measure. Different platforms can provide wildly different estimates (ie: Google Scholar vs. Web of Knowledge). The processing of ‘getting published’ can take a long time -  months or sometimes even years. For information to be 'sticky' it must be relevant and this time lag can be frustrating. In addition, the pay walls of academic journals often prevent public audiences (including the media) from accessing the original article.

Academics should actively promote their research.
Out of 3,303 research papers published by UWA in 2011, 58% have no citations (yet). This statistic is more notable for its commonality among major universities than its size. Once a work is published there is a window of opportunity during which it tends to be discovered -  around 2-3 years after publication. So how can we promote research during this pivotal time?

Professor Owens outlined several ways in which online platforms can used by academics to boost visibility of new knowledge;

1. Write for media outlets that have been specifically created for academic engagement with public audiences such as The Conversation.
2. Where appropriate, use multimedia to share ideas on social platforms like YouTube.
3. Integrate collaboration into the research project itself. Can you create an online platform that can be used as a resource for other scholars or public audiences? Or perhaps even get the public involved in the creation of research itself? 
4. Start a blog to share your research and build a reputation within your area of expertise.
5. Use social media to engage with communities and contribute to conversations.

Inspired by the possibilities, the reaction of her audience of UWA early career researchers was enthusiastic. Many however, were united by a single question...

Where do I start?
Academics are intellectual entrepreneurs. Much of our knowledge is self-taught and to a certain extent it is the responsibility of each individual researcher engage with new technologies.  This being said -  there is a clear need for support and advice in this area. It is for this reason I will be launching a multi-part series of blog posts written for academics in the humanities that will provide a guide to online reputation building. It's something I have been thinking about for a while.




The project will be a learning process for me too. I have worked for several years as a digital marketing manager in the private sector however am looking forward to your feedback which will help me learn more about the complexities and challenges involved faced by scholars in this space.

Walking around lucky.

“A man's gotta make at least one bet a day,

else he could be walking around lucky and never know it”

Anon

History is rife with dreamers and gamblers. Indeed, gambling and dreaming have always been deeply intertwined. With imagination the only limit, perhaps the dreaming is almost as addictive as the exhilaration of a win?

Recently a team of Australian academics have been investigating the power of these dreams, and the effect they had on a community in Harlem, New York in the 1930’s. Last week I attended a free public lecture at UWA in which Professor Shane White revealed some of the incredible stories they have been preserving in their Digital Harlem archive and blog.

Since the beginning of the 20th century Harlem has been a centre for African American culture – a vibrant business and residential hub with strong traditions of literature, film and music. In the time period between the world wars, a wild craze would hit this community and spread like a fever to every corner of Manhattan. The craze was ‘Numbers’ - a simple lottery game that would quickly create a complex industry.

Every day tens of thousands of people would place a bet on a three digit number. The way a daily random number was generated was truly ingenious – with figures selected each morning from statistics displayed at a local financial institution, the New York Clearing House. At this time, most African Americans were completely excluded from the US banking system, finding it difficult to open a bank account and almost impossible to get a loan.

In a twist of irony an institution that excluded African Americans would provide the basis for a brand new black-owned, black-run business. The Numbers game would soon generate tens of millions of dollars every year and become one of the community’s major employers. ‘Numbers men’ were also often able to give loans to those who had been denied them before.

As the Great Depression took its toll, the dreams of Harlem grew. At its height approximately half of Harlem’s population were betting regularly in this illegal lottery. With a 1 in 1000 chance of winning the odds were all too tempting and runners working on commission could earn $20-$40 per day taking bets. But the real winners were the bankers. The Kings and Queens of Harlem could make $10,000 a day – however if a popular set of numbers came up they stood the risk of having to pay out far more than the income generated from the days takings.

Each morning in Harlem there was a hum in the air before the numbers were announced at 10am. This was more than a lottery; it was a social event, a love affair with numbers that permeated the hearts and minds of Harlem residents. Your three lucky numbers could be extracted from any source; birthdays, the scripture number from a church sermon, the page number from a book. It was said that the luckiest number was the three digit shield number of policemen who had arrested your local runner the day before...

An entire industry sprang up based around dreaming. Many were convinced that their lucky numbers would appear to them in their sleep and ‘Dream Books’ were published to help people interpret the meaning of their dreams. Here you could find symbols, events and objects - all attributed with a three digit number.

Policy Pete's Dream Book (1933) thanks to the Digital Harlem Blog.

For bankers, a danger occurred when a large amount of people would pick the same lucky number. There was always a chance that this number could come up, and in 1931 this actually happened causing many major players to go bankrupt. With the end of prohibition (and huge profits from bootlegging) in sight, white gangsters took their chance to take over this lucrative black industry. Numbers continued however the golden days were over.

An ocean away, the Great Depression stirred the dreams of Western Australia too. Optimists here turned to the ‘four-legged lottery’ to lift their fortunes. On Saturday afternoons illegal bookmakers in suburban pubs and (for those in the know) barber shops would take bets. Like Harlem, it soon became a lucrative industry however took an early hit in 1931 when the Western Australian Government set up the Lotteries Commission as a direct competitor.

Today there are legal lotteries in both the US and Australia in which proceeds are sent back into communities. The way lotteries are run may have changed, but perhaps the dreams have stayed the same.



The University of Western Australia’s Institute of Advanced Studies regularly organise regular free public lectures with speakers from around the globe. It’s an incredible opportunity to get inside the mind of some inspiring thinkers and you can view upcoming lectures here.