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Author: Jeffrey Robens

Researchers dedicate themselves to their work but may overlook opportunities to extend its reach. Librarians can make a real difference by connecting them with two key resources that can enhance their research鈥檚 impact: The institutional press office and social media. Librarians can support researchers in utilising these powerful resources to maximise the visibility and impact of their research.

Researchers aim to share their ideas widely, influencing their fields and society. Yet, significant obstacles, particularly time and resources, often limit their capacity for effective dissemination. It is therefore particularly unfortunate when researchers don鈥檛 make use of valuable and accessible resources to enhance the impact of their work, such as their institution鈥檚 press office or social media.

Librarians, uniquely positioned as trusted colleagues and experienced facilitators, have untapped potential to bridge this critical communication gap. By actively supporting researchers in engaging effectively with the press office and leveraging social media, librarians not only enhance their institution's research profile but also position themselves as vital stakeholders in research success.

Introducing researchers to the press office

A research institution鈥檚 press office can support researchers in amplifying the visibility and impact of their work. It can offer researchers guidance on communicating their research effectively and making complex science accessible to audiences beyond academia. Many researchers, however, remain unaware of their institution鈥檚 press office and how it chooses research to promote, for instance via press releases and institutional websites.

Libraries and press offices cover a continuum of support for researchers, sometimes overlapping, across the different stages of the research process. Librarians typically support researchers with literature, publishing strategies, data management, and promoting research, and the press office supports with public engagement, media management, and more. Together, they enable research to reach its full potential, from its scientific essence to its broader impact.

Librarians are ideally positioned to educate researchers and bridge their knowledge gap about the press office. As trusted counterparts to researchers in navigating various aspects of their work, librarians are already supporting researchers in accessing and benefitting from different institutional resources. As such, they can introduce researchers to the press office and the benefits they can gain from working with it.

How librarians can facilitate between researchers and the press office

Librarians can organise sessions or workshops, potentially in collaboration with the press office, to build familiarity and help establish connections. By highlighting the benefits of public engagement for researchers, such as broader societal impact and improved collaborative opportunities, librarians can play an instrumental role in capacity building for researchers at their institution.

These sessions could also advise researchers on how to clearly communicate their study鈥檚 key message, relevance, and potential impact in a way that is understandable to non-specialists. This would be valuable in facilitating the interaction with the press office as this is their key responsibility when writing press releases.

Additionally, such sessions could also inform researchers on how to best collaborate with the press office. One challenge that many press officers face is that researchers contact them too late in the process. Librarians can inform researchers to contact the press office as soon as they know their paper has been accepted.

This alignment of schedules is important because it gives the press office time to write an effective press release. This will be uploaded to science newswire websites to reach potential science journalists. When this is done in a timely manner, journalists would have enough time before the actual publication of the article to interview the researcher. They could then publish a news story on the research in parallel to the article鈥檚 publication.

To further and continuously support researchers in collaborating with the press office, librarians can develop simple guidelines or checklists to share with researchers. These could include information and tips to help them more proactively and effectively engage with their press office.

These guidelines can include recommendations on information researchers should share with the press office (why they think their research would be of public interest, potential key beneficiaries, visuals that can explain complex of abstract ideas), as well as tips for productive collaboration (researchers could offer their support in preparing and validating the press release, what to look for when checking final versions, etc.).

Librarians as social media communication coaches

While it has been actively demonstrated that social media promotion can drive article page views and downloads,¹ researchers often underestimate or misunderstand the potential value of using social media for science communication purposes. Even those that appreciate its importance often lack strategies to effectively communicate their research in an audience-centric manner on social media, which could broaden impact beyond traditional academic publishing.

Here as well, librarians can support their researchers. As part of their role, librarians help researchers promote their work in digital platforms and educate them on how the use of these platforms can contribute to alternative metrics.

To do this, librarians can provide training that includes tips, templates, and examples to coach researchers on effective science communication via social media. These can take the form of hands-on workshops where researchers draft, refine, and schedule effective social media content relating to their work and recent publications.

It would be useful for librarians to curate and share success stories demonstrating how impactful social media engagement can increase visibility, collaboration, and even citation metrics. Similar to working with press offices, librarians can create accessible guidelines for researchers, which they can use to leverage the breadth of social media, such as LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), BlueSky, WeChat, and others.

Support your researchers 鈥� some ideas:

• Organise researcher鈥損ress office meet-and-greets
• Schedule workshops for clear, impactful communication strategies
• Distribute simple checklists for proactive engagement

Bridging the science communication gap

Science communication is crucial to broadening and improving the impact of published research. To support researchers in communicating their work, librarians can play a pivotal role in facilitating interaction with the institution鈥檚 press office as well as coaching researchers on using social media more effectively. By embracing strategies for this support, librarians will also help amplify the reach and impact of research from their institution.

Find out more about science communication and how librarians support researchers in communicating their research:

• Empowering researchers: The role of libraries in promoting published research
• The impact of good science communication, and how organisations can support

For your researchers: Check out blogs on communicating research on The Source, and Nature Masterclasses鈥� on-demand course .

^{1. See Widmer et al. 鈥淓ffect of Promotion via Social Media on Access of Articles in an Academic Medical Journal: A Randomized Controlled Trial.鈥� Academic Medicine 94(10): p 1546-1553, October 2019.}

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