Research Communications 101
Best practice for funding success
Melinda Kenneway
Welcome to the Kudos guide
to best practice in research communications for
funded projects.
As CEO of Kudos, the platform for showcasing research, I am committed to
helping researchers build their influence through effective communication –
within and outside of academia.
Research knowledge powers progress, but only if it reaches its audience.
Competition for that audience – to increase readership and citations, to
find collaborators and win funding – is increasing all the time.
Today, only one in five grant applications are successful. Researchers need
to demonstrate that, not only can they do high quality science, but also that
they can communicate with a wide range of stakeholders so that the
project has the best potential for lasting impact.
I have over 30 years’ experience of research communications with research
groups, societies, universities, publishers and other academic stakeholders
– all over the world.
I’m pleased to make some of this knowledge and experience available to
you through this handbook. If you’d like further assistance, then please visit
info.growkudos.com/researchers for more information on our platform and
services, providing a complete communications solution for your research
project.
Melinda Kenneway, BA Oxon,
CEO and Co-Founder of Kudos
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Contents
Chapter 1: Overview
Chapter 2: Planning
Chapter 3: Brand basics
Chapter 4: Website and SEO
Chapter 5: Face-to-face
Chapter 6: Content marketing
Chapter 7: Email marketing
Chapter 8: Video and infographics
Chapter 9: Social media
Chapter 10: Press and publicity
Chapter 11: Tools and Resources
Chapter 12: Checklist
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Chapter 1: Overview
What is communication?
Communication is a two-way process of reaching mutual
understanding, in which participants not only exchange information,
news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning.
Many people think of communication being “one way” – pushing
information out to an audience. This is indeed part of the process,
but for your research to really make a difference, then it’s important
to think about communication in a more rounded way. Lasting
impact happens when stakeholders are actively involved in the
research process itself, helping shape the questions to be answered
and being consulted and informed throughout the lifecycle of a
project (and beyond).
The four main types of communication to consider in your planning
are:
One-way (“push”) communications:
information that is broadcast with limited direct response or
interactions expected.
Two-way (“pull”) communications:
information is designed to attract audiences to you for some form of
exchange.
Passive communications:
limited to basic transfer and exchange of information.
Active communications:
intended to accelerate understanding and uptake.
When planning communications around research projects, you
should seek to have a blend of these different types of
communication.
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Good communication leads to impact
In recent years, impact has become more central to funding success,
with many funders requiring an impact and communications plan as
part of your grant submission.
Impact in this context usually means real-world change rather than
academic impact, such as citations. This requires researchers to
communicate not only with their academic peers, but also with a
much wider range of audiences such as policy makers, educators,
industry, journalists and the public.
Funders encourage researchers to plan for this in the early stages of
putting a grant application together, so that routes to these
audiences – and a plan for reaching them – can be included and
budgeted for within your application (5-10% of a grant value is
considered appropriate for communications and impact activities).
Reach the audiences that can best build on or benefit from
your work: different communication channels
Engage those audiences – help them understand your
research with plain language summaries, key message, visual,
video and audio materials
Change behaviours, attitudes, awareness, processes, policy
and so on
Amplify that change, for example, from local to national to
international
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Principles of good communication
1.
Correctness
The content must be correct and give the audience a good
understanding of the relevant facts.
2. Relevance
Keep the information you communicate relevant for your target
audiences and provide facts and data to support your conclusions.
3. Uncertainty
Clarify any uncertainties that relate to your research – explain any
limitations or weaknesses.
4. Scientific status
Explain the scientific status of your research. Do your findings match
the general consensus, or do they deviate from this? Have the
findings been published and reviewed or are they preliminary results,
hypotheses etc.?
5. Authorship
Be clear whether you are describing your research or communicating
about research done by others.
6. Perspective
Be aware of other perspectives relating to your research and ensure
you present a balanced view that addresses these too.
7. Transparency
Be open about funding of the research as well as possible company
interests and collaboration partners.
These principles are based on Danish universities’ agreements on research communication,
which in turn are based on the European universities’ cooperation organisation ALLEA’s rules
on good research practice. This translation is drawn from the research support guidance given
to staff at Lund University in Sweden:
https://www.staff.lu.se/research-and-education/
research-support/communicate-your-research/principles-research-communication
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Chapter 2: Planning
An effective communications plan anticipates what information will
need to be communicated to specific audience segments. The plan
should also address who has the authority to communicate and how
information should be disseminated (email, websites, printed reports,
and/or presentations). The plan should define what communication
channels will be used both for dissemination and to solicit feedback.
Finally, the plan should address how communication will be
documented and measured.
A typical structure for a communications plan is:
1.
Strategy
2. Goals (make these SMART – specific, measurable, achievable,
relevant and time-bound)
3. Target audiences
4. Messaging
5. Activity
6. Channels
7. Timing
8. Evaluation
Your plan may be divided over several phases of your project – set
up, building interest, publication, post-publication, post project etc.
R E S O U R C E : Kudos’ premium
service includes a planning tool
to help you identify, record and
manage your target audiences,
communications goals, activities,
channels, timing, metrics and
more. For details about how to
get access, visit
info.growkudos.com/researchers
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Strategy
Your strategy should summarize your overall vision, aim and
objectives for your communication activities. For example, a vision
might be to successfully create change in practices or policy. Overall
objectives might include promote awareness of the project, create
opportunities for engagement/co-development, prepare a variety of
information products, tailor communications for different audience
needs, ensure information is accessible and credible.
Target audiences
Think through the research acceleration model shown on page 4.
Who do you need to connect with, and at what point in your project?
Target audiences typically include academics in the same field,
academics in allied fields, industry, policy makers, media, educators
and the public. Consider ‘internal’ audiences too – your funder and
university, project partners and so on. Prioritise the most influential
groups.
R E S O U R C E : Our blog post, “Who is your research for?” gives more detail about
the different audiences where your research may have impact.
Communication goals
These should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely. For
example: create project website within 6 months, inform 75% of
target group of findings by target date, publish key results in top tier
international journal by target date, engage 20 companies in a
discussion about exploitation of findings by target date, build a
circulation list for newsletter of 5,000+ amongst target audiences,
achieve 100 requests for further information via website.
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Key messages
“Speak to everyone and you speak to no one”.
The first step in winning your audience is simply to get their
attention. Start simply and introduce more complexity later (e.g. an
infographic can link to a more technical article). Consider
stakeholder-specific messages. Does one group need to know
something specific or different to others? Do you need to adapt your
language to assist with understanding? Can you summarize your
recommendations into a simple, relevant message for each group?
Activities
There are a huge range of potential communication activities
available to you. Each activity will typically be a combination of a
“channel” and some “materials”.
Channels
“Channels” are the medium by which you undertake the
communication activities: websites and apps, face-to-face (e.g.
workshops, meetings, exhibitions, consultancy), webinars, email,
social media, direct mail, press and TV, radio, podcasts, and so on.
In putting a plan together of activities and deciding what channels to
use, the key to success is to “go where your audience is and talk to
them in their language.” This is particularly important for reaching
outside academia, where audiences are more likely to engage with
less technical content in easy-to-consume formats such as videos
and infographics.
Materials
These include reports, briefs, videos and infographics, publications
and white papers, press releases, blogs, training, interviews,
newspaper and magazine articles, posters, postcards, leaflets and
brochures, handouts – even your business cards and email signature
can be used to draw attention to your project website or your Kudos
profile page.
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Chapter 3: Brand basics
Companies, products and services have brands, but so too do
people and organizations. A brand is what your audience associates
with you – that audience can be internal (your team and
stakeholders), external, or both. A brand is “managed” by being
intentional about what you want people to think of you, and acting /
communicating in a manner that is consistent with this.
Brands can be helpful for research projects in that they help people
understand and remember your work. There are hundreds of
thousands of research projects underway, so it is already challenging
to make yours stand out. A brand can be used to link all your
communications together and build a strong story about your
research as you progress your project.
T I P : Your profile page (personal Showcase) on Kudos can act as a home for your
brand – see our example on the following page. It’s quick and easy to set up a
page that you can make reflect your values and activities, verbally (through free
text areas) and visually (through images you can select from our library). It also
lets you add links to all your publications, outputs, other profile sites and so on,
making it a “one stop shop” for all your research over which you have full control.
Brand name
In creating a brand for your research project, consider firstly a
distinctive name or acronym. Distinctive is important for when
people search for information about your project, so it is easy to find.
Brand platform
What is the overall vision for the project? This should be a long-term
aim that your research may be a pathway towards (the “why” for
your research). Summarize this in a short sentence that is outwardfacing and ambitious. What is your mission? Write a brief statement
of HOW you will achieve this. What are your values? Think of 4 or 5
values that sum-up your approach that will resonate with your team,
collaborators and audience.
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Visual identity
Consider having a logo designed for your project, with a limited
colour pallet, which can be used on all communications. Perhaps
include a strapline with this to encapsulate the aim of the project.
Kudos Showcases (left) and Story pages (right) include spaces for
project brands and banner images to bring your research to life and
make it more visually engaging and memorable.
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Chapter 4: Website and SEO
A website is central to your communication activities as it provides
you with one place to inform and update your audience on your
project’s progress – key milestones and outputs can be added to
generate awareness and interest as you work towards your results
and publication. Your website can also be used to recruit
participants for studies and feedback.
Some institutions provide support for setting up a project website,
and services like WordPress and Squarespace can also be used but
can require a level of software knowledge to set up. At Kudos we
offer an “out of the box” research project website that requires no
technical knowledge to set-up and manage. By adding your work to
an established site like Kudos, you will benefit from Kudos’ own
reputation and recognition as a quality site, which will increase the
chances of users finding your work from web searches.
Whatever software you choose, key elements you should include are
your project’s title, contributors and collaborators, sponsors /
organizational affiliations, a plain language description of the
project’s aims and objectives, and links to project outputs such as
press releases, presentations, posters, videos and other aids to
communicating your progress. Linking a blog to your website and
writing regular updates can be a very powerful way to bring an
audience to you (“pull” marketing). Other elements to consider
including are how the project came about and how people can
contribute. Use good quality photographs and visual elements
wherever possible – always respecting copyright. There are many
great royalty-free image banks that you can use, such as Unsplash
and Pixabay.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means setting your website site
up and using content in a way that helps your project get found by
Google and other search engines. Some platforms such as Kudos
have this embedded in the technology. Key elements of good SEO
are a site that is mobile-friendly (responsive design), content that
establishes you as an authority on a specific topic and answers
questions your target audience might ask, and video content (ranks
highly). Encourage high-traffic sites (partners, institutions, funders)
to link to your site, as this further establishes your website as
authoritative and trustworthy in the eyes of search engines.
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Chapter 5: Face-to-face
A communications plan should consider face-to-face opportunities
alongside digital activities. However, careful consideration should be
given to this as events, workshops and meeting can be hugely timeconsuming and expensive, and limited in terms of reach.
Meeting and talking with people is a good way to get detailed
feedback, and for some audiences – such as policymakers and
industry – one-to-one meetings can have the potential for
significant impact. Remember that you can still get many of the
benefits of face-to-face communication through virtual meetings
and webinars, with additional benefits of reduced cost, greater
inclusivity, and potentially larger audiences.
Consider your communications objectives carefully to identify where
face-to-face meetings seem the best option and clarify the
additional value gained. Are there alternative ways to interact that
could be more effective and reach a wider audience? If not, then
include any necessary events, workshops and meetings in your plan.
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Chapter 6: Content marketing
High quality, relevant content is the foundation of your
communications plan. “Content” in this context means material that
you produce specifically to inform and engage an audience in your
project’s progress. It can also include more formal outputs such as
articles and data, but this is NOT marketing content. The role of
marketing content is to attract interest in your work that may lead to
your audience accessing more technical information, but only
featuring this will greatly limit your reach, particularly outside of
academia.
Content can be in the form of a blog, web page, social post, photo,
video, printed flyer, newsletter, email – anything you might use to
share information about your project. Your content will be most
successful if it informing, entertaining, novel, and / or inspiring for
your target audiences. Many articles have been written on the
success of content marketing, profit and non-profit alike – it is
proven to work!
When considering what kind of content to include in your
communication plan, consider your target audience personas. Even
just a brief exercise to sketch out who you want to influence and
what their needs and interests are will help focus your thinking on
the content you might then produce. Also consider geography – are
there any localization requirements for priority audiences? You
should aim to have no more than 5 target audience groups.
As well as producing content, you need to distribute it. Deciding
what “channels” to use is a key part of your planning. Consider your
target audiences – what do they read, where do they go, what social
channels do they use? Your plan is likely to include a mix of channels
from Facebook, to events, email and newspapers. Track everything
you do and monitor results. Use Google Analytics and social channels
(which include a level of tracking), or a platform like Kudos that does
the tracking for you. This analysis enables you to refine your
activities in an ongoing cycle of self-improvement.
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Examples of content for different audiences
Stakeholders Advocates Amplifiers
Public
Email updates
Other academics
Online consultation
Science fairs / museum talks / visits
to schools
Academic
conferences
Public debates
Targeted briefings (relevant recommendations, in appropriate language,
format, channel) for each audience
Project websites
Collaboration / coproduction
Blogging
Social
media,
podcasts
Infographics, visual
summaries
Stakeholder workshops
Consultancy, partnerships
Press
releases
Training and materials
R E S O U R C E : Kudos’ services all include
trackable link generators to help you log
your communications and track how many
people are clicking on the links you share –
they can even be used to track people
visiting your project web page after having
seen a poster, talk or handout.
For details about how to get access, visit
info.growkudos.com/researchers
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Radio, TV
Print
media
Academic network
Journals, books
A guide to research
communication
channels by
Example methods for tracking content
engagement
Activity / channel
How to measure
Email, blogs, social
Include a trackable link to more information; count
media
Online consultation
Talks / visits / debates
/ workshops
how many of the recipients / participants / readers
click through
Count attendees. Create a simple handout with a
trackable link to more information and count how
many people click
Find out the approximate number of delegates.
Academic conferences
Include trackable links in posters and slides. Take
business cards with trackable links to information
about your project.
Include trackable links to briefings for the
Targeted briefings
appropriate audience when sending emails, giving
talks or providing information in handouts /
business cards
Count views and (unique) visitors. Track at both
Project websites
project level but also the level of individual outputs
Graphics, audio, video
hosted / linked to on the site to gauge which create
most engagement
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Chapter 7: Email marketing
Sending personal emails to your existing networks is one of the most
effective techniques you can use to build awareness of and
engagement with your research. People you know through your work
are the most likely to be interested in and to act on your messages.
Larger scale email marketing (to people you don’t know personally)
will mean capturing people’s permission to email them, and enabling
them to “unsubscribe” or manage their email preferences. While you
can use your regular email software for individuals or small groups,
you may want to progress to an email marketing platform (such as
Mailchimp or HubSpot – the latter have an offer for non-profits) for
larger email campaigns.
If you don’t already have a list of people who might be interested in
your research, you will need to build it. Ideally you will collect not
only names and email addresses, but also information on their role
(e.g. member of the public, educator, policymaker, industry contact
and so on). Sometimes you may have very specific people you want
to follow your research. You can contact them individually and ask if
they would like to be added to your distribution list for project
updates. Alternatively, and in addition, you can use a form on your
website. Many websites now offer the facility to build a database of
“opted-in” subscribers who want to receive email communications
from you (e.g. via a newsletter). You can invite people to sign up for
your email list:
•
•
•
At events – conferences, workshops, public talks, science fairs
Via social media and websites / project Showcases
Through “gated content” that requires your audience to
complete a form with their contact details and permission to
add them to your mailing list before they access or download
that content. That content must be high value in exchange for
an email address.
Once you have a growing list of contacts, you can use this for
sending project updates – ideally shaping your message to the
needs and interests of specific groups.
After sending your emails, check your open rates, click rates, and
unsubscribe rates. A good email usually has an open rate of 20% or
more, click rate of 3% or more, and unsubscribe rate lower than 1%.
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Chapter 8: Video and
infographics
Psychologists have long cited the power of images over text to
convey information – 93% of all human communication is visual.
Research at 3M Corporation concluded that we process visuals
60,000 times faster than text. In an analysis by HubSpot (a
marketing platform), they found that web pages with images or
videos attract over 94% more views.
Video is particularly powerful, being shared 12 x more than text and
images combined. It is also very important for search engine
optimization (i.e. making your page appear at the top of search
engine results). Building video into your content plan needn’t be
expensive. Smartphone recording has become very high-quality, and
you can create very polished results with just a few accessories –
background paper, a tripod with phone holder, a good light source
and directional microphone. Once you’ve filmed your footage, you
can use platforms like iMovie (Apple), WeVideo or Filmora to edit it.
Videos can be shared on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo.
It’s good practice to prepare a “story” and outline script for your
video but avoid reading from scripts, and try to speak as naturally as
possible. Video can be used for anything – from a quick 3-minute
update on a project milestone to a media briefing for a major
announcement.
Infographics are becoming more widely used and software to create
them quickly and easily is now available, such as Mind The Graph. An
infographic is a collection of imagery, data visualizations like pie
charts and bar graphs, and minimal text, that gives an easy-tounderstand overview of a topic.
Infographics have been linked with higher article citations in several
studies. Infographics are particularly important in the research
sector, as information can be highly technical and breaking this down
into visual components can be helpful in quickly communicating key
points – for specialists and non-specialists alike.
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Chapter 9: Social media
Social media offers you the opportunity to publicize your research in
new ways, expand your network and engage directly with public
audiences. Social media is about making connections – find the
channels you enjoy using, share information about your projects, use
different formats (see content marketing, chapter 6), and you will
soon begin to build an engaged following. While some research
groups delegate this to one member of the team, the best results
come from all team members being active and “talking” authentically
about their interests and findings.
Social media needs a strategy and plan to be effective. It should fit
within your overall plan with a focus on using these channels to reach
specific audiences that use them. Don’t try to do everything! It also
helps to set some clear and measurable goals.
Key channels to use are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
For academic audiences, a profile on ResearchGate and
Academia.edu can be helpful. Remember that posts with image
content generally get a lot more interactions than text-only posts.
For those posts getting a lot of interest organically, consider
boosting your post (Facebook) or advertising with your social media
platforms – this can be done very inexpensively.
Social media is increasingly being seen as a route for academic
openness that helps leverage insights and expertise from a wide
range of stakeholders. This recent article (January 2023) explains in
more detail the benefits of social media for academics and channels
that can be used:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681322000453
There are a variety of platforms you can use to manage social media,
enabling you to post to multiple channels from one place and track
resulting interest. Kudos enables this with a focus specifically on
channels most useful to academics. But there are many other general
services you can use, such as Buffer, Hootsuite and Sprout Social.
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Chapter 10: Press and publicity
It is important to build relationships with the media, particularly if
your research has the potential for public interest. The media is a
powerful amplifier, not only for reaching the public but also for
increasing academic impact too. A study published in the New
England Journal of Medicine found that articles referenced in the
New York Times received 73% more citations than those that weren’t.
A key skill for attracting media attention (and generally for publicity
and broad stakeholder engagement) is writing in plain language.
Numerous studies show that communicating about your research in
simple, non-technical language, ideally with visual aids, is one of the
most effective ways to significantly increase both academic impact
(article downloads and citations) and non-academic impact. This is
because before your research can be read and understood in detail,
first you must attract your audience’s attention and interest.
Key points to consider in your media plan are:
1.
Be strategic: consider what you want to share, with what
audiences and what you want to achieve.
2. Be novel: the media want “news” – that can be new findings,
but it can also be a new perspective on existing findings or a
challenge to accepted thinking.
3. Consider the media’s agenda: what is important to you may
be less important to the media. Consider what is likely to
interest them; time your announcements with global events if
relevant. Keep an eye on emerging new stories with which
your research aligns – be topical.
4. Have a clear message: prepare some key phrases to use in
your communications and interviews, so you can deliver your
argument in the most concise, clear and accessible way.
5. Take advice: consult with your University Press Officer and /
or other academic colleagues with media experience.
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Chapter 11: Tools and resources
The following is a list of further resources you may find useful:
Academic networking
platforms
Research communication and
dissemination
Academia.edu
Kudos
Mendeley
ResearchGate
Royalty free images
Giphy (free gifs)
Email services
Iconstore (free icons)
Campaign Monitor
Pixabay
HubSpot
The Noun Project (free icons)
Mailchimp
Unsplash
MailerLite
Marketo
Social Management Platforms
Octopus
Buffer
Omnisend
Hootsuite
HubSpot
Infographic design
Sprout Social
Mind the Graph
Social media graphics
Popular social networks
Canva
Facebook
Pablo by Buffer
Instagram
Snappa
LinkedIn
Stencil
Pinterest
Reddit
Website services
Tumblr
HubSpot
Twitter
Kudos
YouTube
Square Space
Wix
WordPress
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Communication plan checklist
Use the following as a guide when preparing your communications plan for a
grant application:
1.
Strategy and budget
❑
Communication objectives
❑
Project branding
❑
Target audiences
❑
Potential impacts
❑
Measures of success
❑
Costs*
2. Resources
❑
Website host/platform
❑
Platform features/capabilities
❑
Agency support (PR/design/promotion)
❑
Advertising budget (social media)
❑
Team roles and responsibilities
3. Face-to-face
❑
Events, workshops and meetings
4. Content plan
❑
Audience personas / info needs
❑
Content ideas
❑
Key distribution channels
5. Email marketing
❑
Existing contacts
❑
Tactics and targets for list-building
❑
Email marketing software
6. Videos and infographics
❑
Content ideas
❑
Hosting and distribution
7. Social Media
❑
Objectives and tactics
❑
Content plan/schedule
❑
Key channels
❑
Resources and management software
8. Press and publicity
❑
Media contacts
❑
Media networking events
❑
Communication activities and channels
❑
Planned press releases
* Consult funder guidelines, but communications and impact activities are likely
to be circ. 5-10% of your overall grant application.
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Further reading
In addition to the resources linked throughout the text, we welcome
new readers on our blog, which you can subscribe to at:
https://blog.growkudos.com/news
Recent posts include:
What is research impact?
Why does research impact matter?
How is research impact achieved?
Target audiences for research
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About this guide
This guide has been written for you by Melinda
Kenneway, CEO and co-founder of Kudos.
Melinda has over 30 years’ experience in
scholarly communication, and is passionate
about supporting change that helps make
research more accessible and effective.
Melinda has a degree in Experimental Psychology
from the University of Oxford, and has held
Board-level positions with the Journals Division
of Oxford University Press and Bioscientifica. She
founded the scholarly publishing industry's
leading marketing agency, TBI Communications,
and co-founded Kudos in 2013 to help transform
research communications - utilising the powerful
new channels that are emerging, together with
new metrics of reach and impact, to help
researchers optimise their time in increasing
readership and citations for their work.
Kudos is a complete communications solution
for your research project.
Project website, optimized for SEO and easyto-use with no technical knowledge required
Magazine-style interface that uses images
and visuals for optimizing your impact
Inbuilt communications planning and
management
Integrated with key social media channels
Dashboard reporting of communication
results with comparative data across
channels.
Capture and log impact for easy reporting to
funders and your institution.
Kudos is used by over 430,000 researchers in
over 10,000 institutions around the world.
www.growkudos.com
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Get started at
info.growkudos.com/researchers
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