Abstract
I still remember seeing my name as first author in print for the first article I ever published in the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JDMS). 1 All of that hard work finally came to fruition. I was ecstatic and wanted to shout from the mountain tops! My next article was a review article outlining the use of ultrasound enhancing contrast agents in the echo lab. When I was giving an educational symposium a few months after publication, to my surprise, that article was used by the contrast company as a hand-out for attendees coming to the meeting. In the early years of publication, promoting your scientific work was frequently limited to reprints, Internet access through a university subscription or copied hand-outs.
Today, especially in the advent of social media, the sky is the limit for professional promotion! I recently shared on LinkedIn and Facebook a publication that I co-authored regarding Advanced Cardiac Sonographer data 2 and within 24 hours the post had 859 impressions through LinkedIn and 39 reactions with four shares in Facebook. This means that within 24 hours that there were 859 people that our publication was displayed to and in the following days, I saw the publication come up in my feed from many friends and associates who had also shared the post. In another instance, I was scrolling through Twitter and found a central illustration that I helped to design that had been shared by the journal and had been retweeted four times by physicians and ten “hearts,” this was again within 24 hours.
Let us walk through some of the ways to promote your scientific work. There are several strategies that sonographers can implement when researching, writing, and publishing a manuscript that will help to support dissemination after publication (See Table 1). Some research studies are submitted and presented at annual or scientific meetings prior to publication. This allows the author to not only discuss the project in a public forum but also creates connections with future readers who will expect and potentially share your research work. Annual professional society meetings may have media partnership in which key meeting messages may be picked up and shared by media. Alternatively, meeting organizers will push meeting activities to participants that highlight key presentations or activities from the meeting.
Options for an Author to Promote Their Scientific Work.
Abbreviations: JDMS, Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography; SDMS, Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography.
Early in the writing process, it is important to identify the audience and choose the journal carefully. This ensures that your writing style and content meet the needs of the journal audience and that the manuscript is written to the journal specifications. It may be important to select a journal that provides open access (with or without a fee) that allows all viewers, regardless of whether they have a paid subscription, to view the article. Since the JDMS provides open access for three months after publication, I was able to share my recent publication with meeting attendees by text and by email to those who were interested and not yet seen the publication.
Later in the writing process before publication, select key words that can be linked in social media with hashtags in developing the primary messages. This includes words in the title, conclusion, and graphics that support a clear, concise message that can be easily reshared on social media. 3 Many journals offer or require authors to create a graphical abstract. 4 This picture image summarizes the main points of the article and provides another tool to share and promote your scientific work (See Figure 1). The JDMS, as part of their Strategic Plan, will provide tips and examples to assist authors (example found at https://www.elsevier.com/researcher/author/tools-and-resources/graphical-abstract).
An example of a graphical abstract.
Creating an account and repository of publications in scholarly networks allow for cross-referencing of authors and publications. Once central repository is ORCiD (www.orcid.org) that connects all an author’s linked publications for public viewing. This requires data input that you can choose whether to make public. Unique identifiers are used to hyperlink you as an author on a manuscript with your central repository. All linked publications accessed online will connect to your ORCiD and ensure you get proper attribution for your published work. This registry can be as limited as name and location and as robust to include email, employer affiliations and variations of names by which you might have been published. Finally, be sure to build on prior work and cite your prior publications when appropriate.
Like many “seasoned” sonographers, social media has been a bit of an enigma to me and not something I grew up with. The learning curve has been steep but once we understand the power of professional promotion, we can connect with each other in ways I might have never imagined. I still have more to learn (How do you find the blogs in Instagram?), but the fun of our profession is to always keep learning!