“Authors registering trials in any one of the four largest, global trial registration databases will, for all articles published from 2011, find seamless links between their trial record and study protocol published in a BioMed Central journal, and any subsequent article reporting the outcomes of the trial that includes the trial identifier in the abstract. The links will be present in both full text and PDF versions.”

Not sure about the submission status of an NIH-supported work published in a Springer journal? Use the new form that Springer provides for NIH-funded authors to ensure timely submission of the work in order to be compliant with the NIH Public Access Policy. Why is timely submission important? A PMCID is required within three months of publication.

To locate full grant award information, use the NIH Grants Lookup Tool.

* Authors are highly encouraged to use a standardized version of an affiliation address using no abbreviations.

* If the publication was generated as a result of a specific research study or a group such as an academic program of study, a laboratory or clinic, add the name of the research study or group as a corporate author and use the name consistently. Adding a corporate name for a research study or group enhances retrieval of research output by the given study or group.

* Publish as much as possible. Publication productivity demonstrates willingness to share research findings and helps foster knowledge transfer.

* Present at conferences or other symposia. Conferences are an excellent venue for disseminating new research findings.

* Formulate a concise, well-constructed title and abstract for a work. Include crucial keywords in the abstract. Most databases allow for searching of words noted in a title and an abstract, and secondly, a clear abstract allows users to quickly discern the basis of the work when reviewing a list of results generated by a search query. It is recommended that authors construct an abstract that includes as many specific keywords that summarize the content of the work. What is the work about? Be specific in describing the work to enhance retrieval of the work in databases and search engines. See Writing Your Article: Abstracts by Taylor and Francis.

* Review the publisher copyright form for a manuscript and retain as many rights to the work that to allow for maximum flexibility to re-use the work.

* Consider the desired audience when choosing a journal for publication. Topic-specific journals or journals published by a specialized society may disseminate research results on a topic more efficiently to a desired audience than general science journals, such as Nature or Journal of the American Medical Association. More specialized journals, even with a potentially smaller readership, may offer an author broader dissemination of relevant research results to their peers in their specific field of research.

* Publish “negative” as well as positive research findings. Publication of negative findings leads to further applicability of research and prevents others from duplicating research.

* Publish a manuscript in a journal that is currently indexed by PubMed/MEDLINE. Citations in PubMed/MEDLINE are “crawled” by Google Scholar which can help promote the visibility and accessibility of a work.

* Consider publishing a work in an open access journal. Open access journals allow authors to retain rights to the work that allow for many options for further dissemination of the research.

* Partner with industry for a research project.

* Present preliminary research findings at a meeting or conference and follow-up with a published manuscript, even if the research findings were negative.

* Cultivate a series of academic and professional networks by participating in committees or other related activities. Volunteer for conference-related activities, participate in committees that issue position statements or clinical guidelines, act as a reviewer or Editor-in-Chief for a journal, serve as a mentor, develop relationships with policy-makers on the state or national level, be part of a team for conducting a systematic review, teach a Continuing Education class, serve as a grant application reviewer, participate in responsible conduct of research or curriculum committees affiliated with an academic or institution, serve on Institutional Review Boards or committees for animal studies, and other related activities.

* Many major academic or research institutions have institutional digital repositories that archive the work of authors affiliated with the institution. Some institutional digital repositories allow for creation of specific online communities that showcase the research output of an author or group such as a research study, a department or a center.

* Persuade the organizers of a conference to make publicly available the presentations made at conferences; not just the published abstracts.

* If the work relates to a research study, create a website devoted to the research study and post materials such as peer-reviewed versions of manuscripts of journal publications, conference abstracts, supplemental materials such as images, illustrations, slides, or specimens, progress reports, to name a few. Authors are encouraged to review any copyright forms to confirm that they have the right to post materials on an institutional website. If the right to post a manuscript on an institutional website cannot be obtained, create links to the manuscript from your website using the PMID from a PubMed/MEDLINE citation or persistent URLs/DOIs that link directly to the publisher’s website. If the research study involves work that may be of interest to consumers or potential clinical trial participants, provide information tailored for the layperson.

* If there is a website related to a research study, website developers should utilize SEO (search engine optimization) strategies to enhance retrieval of materials by search engines such as Google. The web developer should confirm that the web page titles describe the content of the website and include the name of the research study. Meta tags that note appropriate keywords should be included in the page header section. Search engines look at this “hidden content” and use this as a basis for search results page rankings.

* Register with CiteULike or Connotea and start a “library” of publications related to a research project or by author and share the research project library with others.

* If a work pertains to potential translational medicine applications, consider including a discussion of how the research could translate into clinical outcomes. This may provide insight for policy-makers as to the potential impact of the research study.

* Start a blog devoted to the research project. Check out ResearchBlogging.org which is a site that allows bloggers to write about peer-reviewed research, but also to share that work with readers and bloggers around the world to learn about cutting-edge research developments.

* Create a podcast describing the research project and submit the podcast to YouTube. Many major academic or research institutions have created their own YouTube channels and provide video services at no charge.

* Issue press releases for significant findings and partner with the institutional media office to deliver findings to local media outlets. Be willing to provide interviews with the media that explain the research study or area of research.

* Conduct outreach visits or provide seminars to other institutions/scientists, policy-makers, practicing physicians, consumers and health care providers to discuss a research study or topic related to current research efforts.

* Collaborate with authors and researchers from other institutions and from other subject areas.

* If the nature of the work is clinical, consider discussing clinical issues that arise with research investigators to help identify possible new areas of research to undertake, or vice versa. Such collaborative efforts help to accelerate translational research efforts.

* Document all forms of research outputs such as journal articles, outreach visits, research data, conference materials, patents, etc. Keeping track of research outputs is crucial to documenting impact of research. See the Assessing the Impact of Research website to learn more about documenting the impact of research.

The partnership between eRA Commons and NCBI allows Commons users to benefit from MyBibliography’s ability to populate citation data from PubMed, PubMed Central, and the NIH Manuscript Submission system, and to readily maintain accurate, structured and up-to-date bibliographic information. The improved data quality resulting from this integration enhances the ability of the NIH to manage and monitor the results of its research portfolio.

As of July 23, 2010, PD/PIs will be unable to enter citations manually into eRA Commons and must use My NCBI’s “My Bibliography” tool to manage their professional bibliographies.

My NCBI Tool to Replace eRA Commons for Bibliography Management: NOT-OD-10-13

A PMCID is now required for demonstration of compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy for applicable papers that have been in publication more than three months before an application, proposal or progress report is due. If an applicable paper is in press or has been in publication for less than three months, the NIH Manuscript Submission system reference number (NIHMS ID) or “PMC Journal – In Process” may be used as documentation of compliance depending on the submission method used by the authors for an applicable paper.

Resources:

• PMID: PMCID Converter Tool

The converter tool displays the NIHMS ID for a work submitted via Methods C and D using the PMID (if available). The PMID is a number assigned to citations added to MEDLINE/PubMed.

• Submission Method Chart

This handy chart from NIH outlines the four methods of submission and includes information on who is responsible for the approval tasks and how to demonstrate compliance.

• Clarification on the Use of an NIHMSID to Indicate Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-09-136)

Materials and related information are available on the Workshop website.

“There are societal debates that have much to gain from the uncensored voices of researchers.”

Why should researchers blog? See: “Why Do We Blog and Other Important Questions, Answered by 34 Science Bloggers.” This post summarizes responses from researchers who blog and their experiences.