How to increase the societal impact of your research

"Add your paper to open-access repositories or journals to make your research more accessible.

Open-source databases are free, easy to discover and mean your publication can be read by those without the financial means to pay expensive subscriptions. Many open-access repositories do not charge any fees. SSRN is an e-library that has no associated costs to add to your research. Likewise, the Open Library of Humanities, a charitable organisation funded by libraries across the world, is committed to publishing without any fees. Choosing an open-source journal is a win-win situation. Increase your societal impact by adding a summary to databases that are accessible to lay readers. Too often, the insights from academic research are lost within a lengthy text or complex formats rather than being clear, how-to guides to concrete innovations. The format can be too theoretical or inaccessible, which means research is not transformed into societal impact. There are a few platforms where you can submit a short, practice-oriented summary of your research that then links back to the original paper, so it can be found easily and used by practitioners and policymakers to guide evidence-based decisions."