Taking Cutting-edge Research to the Masses
Date: October 29, 2019 | Client: Tokyo University of Science
Reading time: 2 mins
The Challenge
TUS produces a large volume of cutting-edge research every year, published in journals with high Impact Factors. However, to attract funding and seek development opportunities, there is a need to more effectively communicate TUS’s research achievements with the academia, as well as with the masses.
The Solution
Impact Science decided to communicated TUS’ cutting-edge research through catchy news-style, scientific press releases, engaging infographics, and videos that summarize the key findings.
The Impact
By the end of 2020, TUS moved up to the QS world ranking from 142nd to 137th, thus becoming the highest-placed Japanese institution to improve its position.
Background
TUS engaged with Impact Science to improve the visibility of its research and scholars. We at Impact Science maintain a highly curated list of journalists and publications that may help universities like TUS multiply their reach. In addition, our content team specialises in creating highly visual press releases that go beyond text, using rich visuals for easier dissemination and better acceptance by the general science enthusiast reader.
The Japan-based TUS also faces challenges in getting its research in front of English-speaking media in the Western world.
Strategy & Approach
Impact Science decided to communicated TUS’ cutting-edge research through catchy news-style, scientific press releases, engaging infographics, and videos that summarize the key findings.
At times, we communicated with the media in multiple languages (English+Japanese), improving the reach. Further, we effectively used social media networks including Twitter and LinkedIn to talk to the journalists.
Within one and half year of the start of the engagement, we had distributed ninety press releases for TUS. The results were astounding as TUS researchers received calls from the industry, offers for collaboration, and garnered press coverage on prestigious global news dailies such as Fox News, Hindustan Times, Asian Scientist, Quanta Magazine, Live Science, etc.
A general improvement in Altmetric scores was also reported when TUS’s research outputs started receiving high degree of engagement from the wider research community in media and social media. A research paper titled ‘Pseudo-2D superconducting quantum computing circuit for the surface code: proposal and preliminary tests’ received one of the top 10 highest Altmetric scores in New Journal of Physics (NJP) for 2019-20.
Another prominent success story was a research titled ‘Primed histone demethylation regulates shoot regenerative competency’. Once Impact Science shared the press release with its curated media list, the author received multiple calls for collaboration, including from a leading chemicals giant.
Similarly, a visual press release created for Medusavirus, a large DNA virus discovered by TUS researchers, was shared as text note, infographics and a video. Within a short time of releasing the press note, the research paper’s Altmetric score improved from 200 to 289. After a year of its promotion, the editorially independent online publication, Quanta Magazine did an excellent reporting of this research along with a short feature story on the lead researcher.
Conclusion
By the end of 2020, TUS moved up to the QS world ranking from 142nd to 137th, thus becoming the highest-placed Japanese institution to improve its position. They identified the need to communicate their strengths more effectively, so they redoubled their efforts to showcase their research successes with the help of Impact Science. Finally, TUS saw its reputation rise among academics and employers both domestically and internationally.
The real impact for any research is garnered by finding its right audience. Impact science provides accurate information about academic research papers to the journal editors, scholarly societies, accreditation agencies, and other independent science readers.
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