6 steps to take your research from idea to action

Open Access Week exclusive cartoon

Open Access Week 2016 is here, a global event that promotes Open Access (OA) in scholarship and research. This year’s theme is ‘Open in Action’, so we’re taking a look at the potential OA research has to be ‘actioned’ by groups outside of academia (browse our OA Week article collection, showcasing how research addresses vital issues).

The benefits of OA: what you told us

Our 2014 Open Access Survey results showed that a significant number of researchers agreed with the following:

50% thought OA could lead to a larger readership for their published research.

65% believed publishing OA offered greater visibility for their work.

81% felt their work could have a wider circulation if it was published OA.

Want to know more? Check out the key findings infographic and browse the full results.

Open Access: from research to action

So what do you need to consider if you would like your research to be picked up and actioned by practitioners, policy makers, NGOS, clinicians, the media or anyone else? In honor of OA Week we’ve put together this exclusive cartoon, that outlines some of the steps you should consider (and is summarised below).

1. Who do you want to read your research? Be clear from your first draft who the key audience for your published research is.

2. Think about that audience when you’re choosing a journal to publish your research in. Find out more about a journal’s readership by reading the aims and scope and browsing published research article metrics.

3. Make your research discoverable, so spend time on your title, your abstract and your article keywords. Think about the words people will use to search for your work and include them.

4. Think about what else you can do to make your research accessible, including whether to enhance your published work with supplemental material, including data.

5. Publish your research OA: find out what it is and why you should consider it.

6. Published? Tell others about it and get in touch so we can help you spread the word (more on the role of marketing in OA).