Improving Academic
Communication
Patrick Dunleavy and Chris Gilson
LSE Public Policy Group
Investigating Academic Impacts conference
13 June 2011
Outline
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Academic communication as it is now
Academic blogging, and the advent of Multiauthor academic blogs (MAABs)
Using social media
Multi-author blogs at the LSE and beyond
Academic Communication as it is now
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Journal articles, conference proceedings (very
high-price) books, book reviews
Journal articles and books are read by few,
and rarely picked up by the media
The text of books and closed-web articles is
completely inaccessible to those without
journal/library access, far too long, and often
impenetrably written
Reflecting a one-way (experts only)
communications process
Academic Communication cont’d
BUT
– social scientists are observers who need to
communicate their observations to the world
(in a timely fashion)
- much of social scientists’ knowledge and
input goes unapplied because of very long
time-lines for outputs, and lack of adaptation
or translation
So how can we change or complement the
‘traditional’ model?
Academic blogging and the advent of
Multi-Author Academic Blogs (MAABs)
Academic Blogging
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Academics going online is not new
 Electronic journals began in disk/BBS format in
1980s and the first ‘Internet’ journals in the
mid 1990s
Academic blogging is different
 Shorter articles: 300 – 1,200 words
 Easy to share by email, social networks
 Searchable on the open web – could be a
teaching tool
 Whole person style – where content may be
personal as well as academic
 Instant comments and feedback
Academic Blogging, contd
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Anyone can do it – exceptionally easy software
Hosting
 Wordpress
 Blogger
 Self-hosted
 Institutional
 Hosted in mainstream media
Dissemination is immediate – seconds as
compared to years
Spectrum of offerings from stars (like Paul
Krugman) to more ordinary academic folk
Single author blogs
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Have grown massively in popularity (with
their authors) in recent years; e.g. Warwick
lists over 7,000 on their portal with over
140,000 entries
But, without frequent updates, these often
wither – 75%+ of blogs worldwide are dead
or dormant
With increasing pressure on academics and
university staff – who has the time to blog?
Single author blogs
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Content is king, and ‘vanity’ projects with infrequent
posts are counter-productive and won’t survive
Some SABs are successful in the political arena
(Guido Fawkes)
But most SABs are now either shutting down or
joining with other (more corporate) bloggers – even
in political commentary (Iain Dale)
Appetite for personal commentary/ glimpses of life
has now shifted to Twitter?
Multi-author academic blogs
(MAABs)
Multi-author academic blogs
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Multiple contributors
 Covering many topics or subjects
 Posting regularly and reliably, so that
readers know when to return
Flexible formats – from ‘Top-level’ blogs with
hundreds of authors and posting every day
(e.g. LSE’s British Politics and Policy blog)
Through to smaller MAABs for single
departments or networks, posting weekly or
bi-weekly
Comments and social media can help build a
community
Easy to track readership with Google Analytics
Multi-author blogs and social media
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Twitter/Facebook
 Promote the blog and can greatly extend its
reach and visibility
 Add interactive elements to build
community
 Encourage discussion, rapid correction and
clarifying
Multi-author blogs – style tips
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Use short paragraphs, simple language
‘Front load’ the narrative – get the key points at the
beginning
Always use narrative titles (written by the blog team,
not the author) will help content to ‘go viral’ – can you
retweet the title as it stands?
Include good introductory paragraphs (also written by
the blog team) give the gist of the argument and key
take-away messages
Don’t leave out simple, clear, charts and diagrams
Give methods information where it is needed – help
expand public understanding of academic subjects
A Creative Commons license helps content to spread
Multi-author (themed) blogs
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Work well linked to a journal (e.g. Social
Europe)
Can generate many Twitter followers (e.g.
British Politics and Policy at LSE has 4,200 in a
year, Social Europe has 10,000+)
Can make good use of podcasts, video and
other rich media elements (e.g. Social Europe)
Varied orientations e.g. The Conversation is a
newspaper, Australian Policy Online is an
indexer
Smaller multi-author (themed) blogs
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Are becoming more and more prevalent
worldwide – a few we’ve noticed in our area:
 Many at LSE – Media, International Affairs,
Africa
 Oxford – Politics in Spires
 Nottingham - Ballots and Bullets
Multi-author blogs
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The internet is not a zero-sum game, and if
many universities pitch in to better
communicate academic knowledge to wider
audiences the result should be beneficial for
all
Structural issues for MAABs
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Getting institutional buy-in is tricky:
 Coping with academics who don’t “get it” and want
to “stay long” – offer to rewrite stuff for them,
giving them final editorial control (of main text)
 Dealing with Press Office/ Communications/
External Relations and other vested interests, who
often are very slow to change and feel threatened
 DIY options – single departments/groups can run
less ambitious MAABs. But what will make folk
come back to you?
 Faculty and university-wide MAABs will probably
work best
 Collaborations between institutions and
networking can both help in assembling a critical
mass of authors
Conclusions
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Professional standards of communication are changing
in every walk-of-life and every academic discipline
Usually towards getting shorter – “Less is more”
Strong exceptions too though, like 24 hours news long
interviews, to fill the space; many webcasts and
podcasts, etc.
Main research outputs need different versions,
targeted more to segmented audiences (e.g. closedweb experts and open-web audiences)
But even these distinctions may lapse – e.g. free-toread professional journals are opening up full details
to everyone online (who’s expert enough)
And with 50% of each UK generation becoming
graduates, and universities needing alumni support,
communicating expertly to graduates is set to be more
vital