In this pre-conference session, David invites publishers to unleash their authors - a hidden goldmine ready, willing and able to help increase the impact of published works. Data, examples and recommendations in a 15 minute presentation.

1. David Sommer
Director of Kudos and
David Sommer Consulting
SSP Pre-conference
28th May 2014 Boston
Unleash Your Authors

2. Author submission

3. Author-Publisher Relationship
“Is this my beginning or is
this the end?
When will I see you
again?”
The Three Degrees
Article acceptance…

4. 1996 2006
Challenges in the
information sector

5. 5
♯1: information overload
Growth curve for number of articles published per annum
Chart based on 3.26% pa growth in article numbers,the lower limit proposed by Mabe and Amin
in Growth dynamics of scholarly and scientific journals. Scientometrics, 51:1 (2001) 147–162
In the world today, there are
50 million
published research articles
and that number is doubling every twenty years
but readers’ time is not doubling!

6. ♯2: dense technical content
6
• Research requires expertise to
understand
• Formal communications often
dense
• Opportunity for new
discoverability layer
– e.g. impact statements
– e.g. lay summaries
– e.g. video ‘abstracts’
– e.g. visual abstracts
– e.g. data
• Such useful materials lost in silos

7. ♯3: under-utilized networks
• Personal networks are key to
how people share, find and
select relevant articles
• Traditionally: conferences,
word of mouth, email
• Future: social networks
(exist, but underutilized)
7

8. ♯4: limited publisher resources
8

9. Self-fulfilling popularity
99
Usageorcitations
Article Usage / Citation Distribution
Usage / citations
Most read/
cited article
Least read/
cited article
Many articles are
NEVER READ and
NEVER CITED

10. 10
We have a
serious problem…

11. The problem
11

12. 1996 2006
An obvious solution…

13. Who could help here?
13
• Who really understands the work best?
• Who is best placed to explain the work to others?
• Who is already plugged into the relevant audience?
• Who has links to additional resources that add
context to the article?
The Author The Author
The Author The Author

14. 1996 2006
Sure, involve the authors.
But will they want to help?

15. Survey
• We sent a survey to 42,000 researchers worldwide
• Around 10% response rate
• Coverage of all major disciplines
15

16. 51%
33%
6%
10%
Could be somewhat
improved
Could be significantly
improved
Could not be improved
I don’t know
How do they feel about current levels of
visibility, usage and impact?
16
n = 3,669
84% of authors think
there is room for
improvement
To what extent do you think more could be done to increase the visibility,
usage or impact of your articles on or after publication?

17. Do they get much support from their institutions?
17
No – there are no staff
specifically responsible for this
at my institution
I don't know
Yes – press office
Yes – other dedicated staff at
a central level
Yes – staff at a central level,
but not exclusively dedicated
to this
Yes – dedicated staff at a
faculty level
Yes – staff at a faculty level,
but not exclusively dedicated
to this
Does your institution have staff specifically responsible for helping
researchers increase and/or demonstrate the impact of their research?
NO
YES
n = 3,630

18. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Me Publisher /
society
My co-
authors
Institution's
PR team
Research
support
staff
Library /
repository
staff
Funder
1 (least responsibility)
2
3
4
5
6
7 (most responsibility)
Who should have responsibility for increasing
levels of visibility, usage and impact?
18
n = 3,410
Please rate the following for how much responsibility you think they should have for
ensuring your articles are as widely read and cited as possible:

19. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Me Publisher /
society
My co-
authors
Institution's
PR team
Research
support
staff
Library /
repository
staff
Funder
1 (least responsibility)
2
3
4
5
6
7 (most responsibility)
Who should have responsibility for increasing
levels of visibility, usage and impact?
19
They’re pretty
willing to do it
themselves!
80% said “I’m
responsible”
n = 3,410
Please rate the following for how much responsibility you think they should have for
ensuring your articles are as widely read and cited as possible:

20. Who might use tools designed to increase impact?
20
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
Me Support staff
in my team
Support staff
elsewhere in
the institution
Don't know
1 (least likely)
2
3
4
5
6
7 (most likely)
75% of respondents
quite likely, likely or
very likely to use the
tools themselves
n = 3,275
If tools were available to help you increase readership and impact of your articles, how likely would you be to use
them, and can you estimate the likelihood that others in your institution would use them?

21. Survey summary
• 84% of authors surveyed thought that more could
be done to raise the visibility, impact and usage of
their work
• Over 75% of respondents said they would be quite
likely, likely or very likely to use tools themselves to
help improve visibility and impact
• 80% of authors felt that it was their personal
responsibility to increase the levels of impact, usage
and visibility of their work (scoring 5,6 or 7 with 7
being the highest level of responsibility).
Authors appear to be willing to help
21

22. 1996 2006
OK, so authors are
willing to help, but will they
be any good at helping
improve impact?

23. Survey
23
The short answer is…
YES!

24. Kudos tool for authors…
24

25. In partnership with …
25 25

26. Core steps
26

27. 1996 2006
explain

28. Explaining
28

29. An example…
29
Royal Society of Chemistry
Chemical Science 2014,5, 1118-1127
DOI: 10.1039/C3SC52006D
Philip Gale
Abstract
The transmembrane transport of anions by small synthetic molecules is a growing field in
supramolecular chemistry and has focussed mainly on the transmembrane transport of
chloride. On the other hand, the transport of the highly hydrophilic sulfate anion across lipid
bilayers is much less developed, even though the inability to transport sulfate across cellular
membranes has been linked to a variety of genetic diseases. Tris-thioureas possess high
sulfate affinities and have been shown to be excellent chloride and bicarbonate
transporters. Herein we report the sulfate transport abilities of a series of tris-ureas and tris-
thioureas based on a tris(2-aminoethyl)amine or cyclopeptide scaffold. We have developed
a new technique based on 33S NMR that can be used to monitor sulfate transport, using 33S-
labelled sulfate and paramagnetic agents such as Mn2+ and Fe3+ to discriminate between
intra- and extravesicular sulfate. Reasonable sulfate transport abilities were found for the
reported tris-ureas and tris-thioureas, providing a starting point for the development of more
powerful synthetic sulfate transporters that can be used in the treatment of certain
channelopathies or as a model for biological sulfate transporters.

30. 30

31. An example…
31
Royal Society Publishing
Proc. R. Soc. A
DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2009.0618
Maria Nucci
Abstract
Fels’ conditions (Fels, M. E. 1996 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 348, 5007–5029. (doi:10.1090/
S0002-9947-96-01720-5)) ensure the existence and uniqueness of the Lagrangian in the case
of a fourth-order equation. We show that when Fels’ conditions are satisfied, the Lagrangian
can be derived from the Jacobi last multiplier, as in the case of a second-order equation.
Indeed, we prove that if a Lagrangian exists for an equation of any even order, then it can
be derived from the Jacobi last multiplier. Two equations from a Number Theory paper by Hall
(Hall, R. R. 2002 J. Number Theory 93, 235–245. (doi:10.1006/jnth.2001.2719)), one of the
second and one of the fourth order, will be used to exemplify the method. The known link
between Jacobi last multiplier and Lie symmetries is also exploited. Finally, the Lagrangians of
two fourth-order equations drawn from Physics are determined with the same method.

32. 32

33. 1996 2006
enrich

34. 34

35. 35

36. 1996 2006
share

37. Share
• Give authors the tools to share their work within their
networks
• Measure the results
37

38. 38

39. Share
39

40. 1996 2006
What are the results…

41. Early Kudos pilot results…
19% higher
article usage per day
for articles shared using the Kudos tools
compared to a control group

42. 1996 2006
Summary…

43. Summary
Authors are your secret weapon…
and they are willing to help promote their articles…
and they appear to be good at it
Article acceptance is the beginning, not the end
Nurture, engage and
UNEASH YOUR AUTHORS!
43

44. David Sommer
Stand 57
David@GrowKudos.com
www.growkudos.com
@GrowKudos
Thank you