Questions Answered: ‘How to promote your article and impact policy’ webinar
We recently hosted a webinar where we discussed the steps a researcher should take after publishing, to ensure their research receives the attention it deserves. During the session— hosted by Sean Scarisbrick, featuring publishing experts Juliane Baron, Michael Todd and Sophie Boddington— attendees discovered practical strategies to empower themselves to make a real difference in shaping policies that matter.
Here are some answers to the great questions we were unable to answer during the session:
If you’re interested in watching the recording of this webinar or exploring one of our previous webinars, complete the form at this link and receive immediate access to our full library of webinar recordings.
Research Promotion
1. Can I promote my research before publication and/or during peer review? Is there a risk of having my idea copied? Should I share only the title of the paper and the link?
Promoting your research before publication or during peer review can be a strategic way to build interest, get feedback, and establish your position in a research area. However, there are important considerations to keep in mind to protect your work and manage risks. As you note, if you share too many details before your work is formally published or protected, there is a risk of someone using or building on your idea without giving proper credit. While rare, there is a possibility that someone may copy or build upon your ideas without acknowledgment, especially in highly competitive fields.
With that in mind, we recommend only sharing a brief summary or abstract that highlights the main problem, goals, and potential implications of your research without revealing specific methods, data, or results. This provides enough information for others to understand the nature of your research without disclosing key details. Avoid posting full figures, tables, or detailed methods online until the research is either published or patented (if applicable). Sharing the title, key questions, or general approach with a link to your profile or preprint (if applicable) is a safer way to build interest. If you’re comfortable, consider posting your paper on a preprint server (e.g., Advance, arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN). This ensures that your work is publicly documented with a timestamp, which helps establish authorship and priority. Be sure to check if the journal you end up submitting to allows submissions previously posted on a preprint server. If your paper is under review or on a preprint server, link to that version so interested peers can follow up. Alternatively, presenting preliminary findings at conferences can help you get credit for the work and receive feedback while being part of a more formal setting.
For highly novel or proprietary work, consider consulting with a mentor or legal expert on how to share responsibly.
2. Are there organizations that can help researchers without funding receive financial support to travel to international conferences?
Yes, there are several organizations and programs that provide financial support for researchers who lack funding to attend international conferences. Below are some notable options. Each of these sources may have specific eligibility requirements, so it's essential to review their criteria and deadlines carefully.
Many professional societies offer travel grants or awards to help cover the costs of attending conferences they sponsor. Check with specific societies relevant to your field. You may also receive travel support if you are presenting at a meeting. Submitting a compelling research abstract can increase your chances of being awarded travel funding.
Similarly, many major conferences offer travel grants or scholarships specifically for early-career researchers, students, or researchers from underrepresented regions. There may also be application fee waivers and stipends. Check the official website of the conference for details on applying for these opportunities.
Check with government and non-governmental funding agencies, as well as international programs. National Science Foundation (NSF), for instance, provides funding opportunities for U.S.-based researchers to travel and participate in international conferences. European Commission (Horizon Europe) supports travel and participation in conferences through various grant programs. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) supports research activities and dissemination, including conference participation, for researchers from developing countries. UNESCO and World Health Organization (WHO) occasionally provide grants and support for attending conferences related to global research initiatives. TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences) offers support for researchers from developing countries to attend international scientific events.
Many universities have internal funding or travel grants for researchers, students, and faculty members to present at conferences. Reach out to your institution's research office or department for potential travel funding.
Look into foundations and charitable organizations. The Wellcome Trust, for example, provides support for researchers in the health and biomedical sciences to present and share their work internationally. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation may provide travel funding as part of broader research grants, especially for topics related to global health and development. There are also specialized programs for developing countries. DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) offers various grants for researchers from developing countries to attend events in Germany and other parts of Europe. Commonwealth scholarships sometimes include funding for conference travel as part of broader research support.
3. I published a case report in a subscription-based journal. Can I now post the galley proof on Academia or ResearchGate?
No, you may not share your galley proof on Academia or ResearchGate. You may only share the Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript. You can read our full author archiving and re-use policy here. You may only use the Final Published PDF in the following ways:
in relation to your own teaching, provided that any electronic distribution maintains restricted access
to share on an individual basis with research colleagues, provided that such sharing is not for commercial purposes
in your dissertation or thesis, including where the dissertation or thesis will be posted in any electronic Institutional Repository or database
in a book authored or edited by you, at any time after the Contribution’s publication in the journal.
Provided that:
Access to the Original Submission and Accepted Manuscript is provided at no charge.
Any re-use terms for users of websites and repositories (where your Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript are posted) are restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.
You may not post the Final Published PDF on any unrestricted website or repository without permission from Sage.
You may not republish or translate any version of your Contribution in another journal without prior permission from Sage.
Policy Impact
1. On Sage Policy Profiles, are there plans to allow searches for other people’s policy impact?
There are no plans to broaden the scope of searches presently available on Sage Policy Profiles. While we realize there are many common scenarios where a third-party is interested in another’s policy impact – we at Sage are among them! - our free tool is aimed at the individual researcher. Those who do desire broader search capability can make use of paid tools from our partners at Overton.io. (And they do offer free trials.)
2. How far back does Sage Policy Profiles monitor?
The pool of policy documents we use is the Overton database, which continues to expand and at present contains 14 million documents. Overton started collecting relevant documents in 2019 and believes its coverage is generally comprehensive from 2015 onward. It does have some older documents – for example, there are papers from the Canadian government dating to the 1920s – but anything before 2009 will generally be sparse.
3. Can you share advice for writing a policy brief, its impact, and lessons learned from the process? What indicators or methods have you used to track this impact?
Policy briefs should be short (2-3 pages), focused documents that translate research into actionable ideas by identifying specific societal challenges and recommend specific next steps for identified policymakers. Day One has an incubator with many examples of impact. Scholars Strategy Network offers trainings and examples.
4. Beyond policy impact, is there a metric that measures how our research is used to inform curriculum or teaching, such as teaching impact?
This is a great question and the quick answer is “no,” or at least nothing that perfectly accomplishes this that we’re aware of. (A better answer is, “No, but thanks for the idea for a future project.”) There are of course proxies that can be used to give a faint idea of how your research is impact the classroom, such as the h-index (for its originator Jorge Hirsh), which like most such metrics measures citations, in this case the body of an individual author’s body of work appearing in academic literature. Another proxy, this one for individual article, would be platforms such as Altmetric (https://www.altmetric.com/solutions/free-tools/), Dimensions or PlumX Metrics which all give some insight into how research has been used in materials that appear online.
To watch the recording of this webinar or explore one of our previous webinars, complete the form at this link and receive immediate access to our full library of webinar recordings.