Broadening your impact

Today, there are many new forms of scholarly publishing, networking and collaborating. Beyond the more traditional means of scholarly communication, researchers can now reach vast and distant audiences well beyond the borders of their research communities.  This page provides links to some of these new tools for sharing work and connecting with potential collaborators. In addition, there are now tools that can be used to measure research impact in these non-traditional forms of scholarly communication, also referred to as 'altmetrics'.

Images from the University of British Columbia, UBC Library, "Building Your Academic Profile"; http://help.library.ubc.ca/publishing-research/building-your-academic-profile/                         

A visual representation of the traditional scholarly lifecycleA visual representation of the highly linked scholarly profile and the role of altmetrics in such profiles

Connecting with the research community

Below are a few of the more widely used interdisciplinary, scholarly networking tools.  Bear in mind that there are many discipline-specific online networking communities as well, serving to connect researchers in their own specialized subject areas. 

New forms of scholarly publishing

Increasingly, researchers are sharing their work in non-traditional ways online.  Here is a list of some online venues for new forms of scholarly communication. 

Alternative Impact Metrics

While most of this guide is dedicated to measuring the impact of research published in traditional scholarly journals, the new forms of scholarly communication mentioned on this page are increasingly being tapped for impact metrics.  Here are a few emerging tools for measuring impact within traditional publishing but incorporating these new forms of scholarly communication and research sharing.