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Promoting your research using Kudos

Kudos is a web-based service that helps researchers to increase the visibility of their work AND then track the subsequent impact of their published articles.  It is free for researchers to use and an account can be easily set up here.  Kudos has been developed in response to a growing awareness that readers are struggling to filter the growing quantity of published research, especially with the advent of Open Access.  It provides a single platform to help researchers assemble and create information in a way that can:

  1. support search filtering  - maximize visibility
  2. share information  - drive discoverability
  3. measure and monitor the effect of both activities  - demonstrate impact

How does Kudos work?

Kudos offers 3 simple steps to manage and monitor the effective dissemination of your research. 

Step 1 - Explain. Create a plain language summary of your publication so that it can be found and understood by a broader audience.  This includes ways to:

  • make it easier for people within your field to skim and scan more publications
  • people in adjacent fields to understand the relevance of your work to what they are doing
  • people outside of academia to understand your research and apply it in non-academic ways   

For example, changing the article title from "California foredune plant biogeomorphology" to "California's coastal plants build sand dunes through teamwork".  

Step 2 - Share.  Enrich the article by adding links to other materials (such as video clips, interviews and datasets) that provide context. Share it to your social networks, web pages or email contacts.  Use Kudos' trackable links to connect the article back to those other resources. 

Step 3 - Measure.  Measure the effect on clicks, views, downloads, mentions and citations to learn which communication channels are most effective at disseminating your work.  Monitor the results in BRAD using the altmetric doughnut score and citation counts. 

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Kudos benefits

Kudos helps researchers who want assistance with increasing the usage of, and citations to, their publications.  A 2015 NTI study found that using Kudos resulted in a 23% increase in full-text downloads on publisher sites.  It also helps researchers understand which of their promotion efforts are having the greatest effect on article performance.  Specifically, it helps academics:

  • get an early indication of future citations
  • identify potential collaborators
  • identify key influences and trends
  • re-use summaries for impact statements, grant applications and PR notices