In an era of information explosion, even high-quality research can easily get swamped. Therefore, often times researchers need to advertise their work in addition to the efforts spent in the lab. You probably have seen posts on LinkedIn or Twitter that start with “I’m happy/thrilled/excited to share our new publication on …“. This is a legit thing to do. Who doesn’t want to do research that is impactful and recoginzed by the community? I do, too.
Following the publication of my paper on wildfire, my advisor (Dr. Paolo Bocchini) initiated a media campaign through Lehigh News, which made great contribution to the number of readers and the paper’s Altmetric. Not gonna lie, I kept checking the number of readers for two weeks (multiple times a day, crazy). It gave me a feeling of satisfication (and some fun).
While these news media do a gread job in boosting publicity, they are typically superficial and uneducative. You may find a few sentences that describe the background and motivation of the research project, and some quotes from the researchers. The message you can take away is basically ‘who did what’, and you may immediately forget it as you open a new app or tab. On the other hand, researchers (yes, including graduate students) are expected to have the capability to explain their research to non-expert audience, such as when engaged in outreach situations or when requesting funding. This is a skill that needs training and practice, which unfortunately is often lacking in the graduate study program.
But don’t worry, here we are: Lehigh University Graduate Student Research Series (GSRS)! GSRS is a blog that provides opportunities for graduate students and post-docs to write about their research in a way that is blog-appropriate and accessible for the widest possible range of readers. If you are eligible, please consider submitting a blog to GSRS and you will benefit from the process.
I’m very honored to be part of the inaugural Editorial Board, working with a group of motivated folks to take this to reality. More excitingly, my blog on wildfire became the inaugural blog of GSRS. Check it out and I’m sure you will find it interesting and learn something useful!
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