DISSEMINATION,
MASS COMMUNICATION,
PUBLIC RELATIONS
AND
Dr. Tony E. Wohlers, Cameron University
2012 Grant Writing Institute
DISSEMINATION
Definition and Need
The process of COMMUNICATING information about your
research to the PUBLIC
Most funding agencies and foundations require that a
dissemination component be included in the proposal
DISSEMINATION PLAN

Development Considerations
 Incorporate
into planning of your project
 Consider the following questions:
 Goal:
 Audience:
 Medium:
 Execution:
What are the goals and objectives of the
dissemination effort?
Who is affected most by this project and who
would be interested in it?
What is the most effective way to reach each
audience? Which resources does each group
typically access?
When should each aspect of the dissemination
plan occur?
Who will be responsible for dissemination activity?

Goal:
What are the goals and objectives of
the dissemination effort?

Audience:
Who is affected most by this
project and who would be
interested in it?

Medium:
What is the most effective way to
reach each audience? Which
resource does each group typically
access?

Execution:
When should each aspect of the
dissemination plan occur?
Who will be responsible for
dissemination activity?
DISSEMINATION PLAN

Writing Guidelines
 Key
Characteristics
 Concise:
Short, to the point, and easy to navigate
 Key
Points:
Make a bulleted list for key findings
 Interesting:
Compelling presentation of findings
 Responsive:
Keep your target audience in mind
 Useful:
Clear conclusions and recommendations
 Attractive:
Print some of the key documents in color
DISSEMINATION PLAN

Strategies for Dissemination By Dissemination
 Key
Characteristics
 Traditional

Press Release:
efficient and effective

Media Coverage:
inexpensive and easy

Flyers:
concise and visual

Conferences:
state, national, international

Publications:
journals, books, etc.

Strategies for Dissemination By Dissemination
 Key
Characteristics
 New
Avenues

Publications:
Open Access

Cyberspace:
Social Media, Research Networks (Internet2)
List of
stakeholders
(include local,
state and
national)
…
Manuscript
Community forums,
health fairs
Conference or workshop
Study newsletter
Letter of thanks to study
participants with study
update
Flyers, posters and
research briefs
Press release
Research summary
document
DISSEMINATION PLAN
Table 1: Dissemination Template
DISSEMINATION PLAN

Cost Effectiveness

Do not underestimate the cost of implementing your dissemination
plan and detail expenses for travel, layouts, logos, website design
and maintenance, printing, translation, storage, and administrative
support
Table 2: Effectiveness of Selected Dissemination Activities
Dissemination Activity
Effectiveness
Conferences
focused audience and costs may be reduced to
very little when organized within an institution
Websites
large audience and no or little costs when
developed and hosted within an institution
Internet2 (OneNet)
large audience and no additional costs
DISSEMINATION PLAN

Evaluating Success
 How
will you know if you have met your dissemination
goals?
 What are your success criteria?
 Are there measurable indicators for these criteria?
 For
example—Number of peers reached, responses to
publication, number of Web site hits, number of inquiries
received.
DISSEMINATION PLAN

Evaluating Success
 How
will you involve end users in evaluating the
dissemination activities?
 For
example—Obtaining feedback on how easy the
research product was to use, what was needed to
translate research findings into practice in their setting.
NEW AVENUES: OPEN ACCESS

Basic Background
 By analogy with Open Source, Open Access (OA) to the research literature
entails the freedom to read, use and redistribute the published results of
scholarly research and derivative works based on those publications.
 digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing
restrictions
Figure 1: Geographical Distribution of 355 Open Access Journals in the Sciences
Source: Elena Giglia in Publishing in the Networked
World: Transforming the Nature of Communication.
NEW AVENUES: OPEN ACCESS


OA Basic Delivery Vehicles

OA journals ("gold OA")
 conduct peer review

OA repositories ("green OA")
review
 do not conduct peer
Other OA Vehicles

personal web sites, ebooks, discussion forums, email
lists, blogs, wikis, videos, audio files, RSS feeds, and P2P
file-sharing networks
Michael Gillings Publication List
NEW AVENUES: SOCIAL MEDIA
Web applications that
facilitate interactive
information sharing,
interoperability, usercentered design and
collaboration on the
Web.
NEW AVENUES: RESEARCH NETWORKS
Austria (ACOnet) - Israel (IUCC) - Italy (GARR) - Lithuania (LITNET)
Luxembourg (RESTENA) - Netherlands (SURFnet) - Norway (UNINETT) - Poland (PCSS)
Romania (RNC) - Russia (RIPN) - Slovakia (SANET) - Slovenia (ARNES)
Spain (RedIris) - Sweden (SUNET) - Switzerland (SWITCH) - United Kingdom (JANET) - CERN
Belgium (BELnet) - Croatia (CARnet) – Czech Rep. (CESnet) - Cyprus (Cynet) - Denmark (UNI-C)
Europe (GEANT) - France (RENATER) - Germany (G-Win)
Greece (GRnet) - Ireland (HEAnet)
Oklahoma (OneNet)
The Internet2 Network, through its regional network and connector members, connects over 60,000 U.S. educational, research,
government and "community anchor" institutions, from primary and secondary schools to community colleges and universities, public
libraries and museums to health care organizations
NEW AVENUES: RESEARCH NETWORK - ONENET

Network and Hub

Began in 1992 and utilizes fiber optics and wireless technologies to
transmit video, voice and data throughout Oklahoma

Provides high-speed communications to a variety of Oklahoma entities
such as: public and vocational-technical schools; colleges and universities;
public libraries; local, tribal, state and federal governments; court systems;
rural health care delivery systems; and programs engaged in research.
•Fast
•Affordable
•Flexible
•Efficient
•Reliable
•Secure
http://www.onenet.net/
ONENET

Use One Net to:
 Videoconference
local meetings
 Videoconference statewide meetings
 All
Oklahoma colleges and universities
 All Oklahoma technical schools
 85% High schools/middle schools
 Libraries
 Government offices and agencies
 Hospitals
 Businesses
ONENET

Use One Net to:
 Videoconference
 Internet
national meetings
2
 National Lambda Rail
 Project websites
 Discuss with colleagues in other states and/or other
countries
 Send results and data to colleagues in other states &
other countries
ONENET

Use One Net to:
 Share
courses or instruments with other institutions
 Share courses with high schools
 Share courses with other countries
 Virtual field trips for students and researchers
 Research
sites
 Work sites
 Application sites
 Other states
 Other countries
 Museums or special collections
ONENET

Benefits:
 Lead
to future funding
 Share with colleagues
 Share with the world
 New project ideas
 Recruit into the field
 Represent the field to the public
 Responsible citizenship
 Eliminate “reinvention of the wheel”
 Increase status - you, university, funder
DISSEMINATION AND GRANT WRITING

Include dissemination narrative in:
 your
program narrative,
 evaluation plan, and
 budget - 5-10% of the total budget amount
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

Practice ethical behavior

Guard your intellectual property rights

Do not violate other’s property rights

Follow the public relations processes and
procedures of your organization

If there is not a policy, help develop one
Remember, a success includes
identifying a failure and
providing insights for its remediation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND REFERENCES
Thanks to Linda Mason, Bill Johnson, Gerry Cherry, and
Ann Nalley for letting me borrow some of their slides.
Some References

Turid Hedlund and Yasar Tonta (2010). Publishing in the Networked World:
Transforming the Nature of Communication. 14th International Conference on
Electronic Publishing 16 - 18 June 2010 , (http://www.elpub.net).

Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehard (2006). All you Need to Know About Action
Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Willo Pequegn Social at, Ellen Stover, and Cheryl Ann Boyce (2011). How to Write a
Successful Grant Application. A Guide for and Behavioral Scientists. New York:
Springer.