Sharing Research Beyond Academia

Sharing research beyond academia includes activities that make findings accessible and useful to non‑academic audiences, such as policymakers, practitioners, communities, and the public. This section brings together guidance and tools that support planning and carrying out dissemination beyond peer‑reviewed journals.  

• Infographic: So, you’ve had a publication accepted, now what? Guide to End-of-Grant KT at DFM 
• External Resource: Checklist for Communicating Science & Health Research to the Public – National Institutes of Health 
• External Resource: Beyond Scientific Publication: Strategies for Disseminating Research Findings – Yale Center for Clinical Investigation 
• External Resource: Communicating Your Research – The Health Foundation 
• External Resource: Dissemination Guide of Guides – Research Impact Canada 

Institutional and General Research Repositories  

Repositories are online platforms where researchers can store, share and preserve their scholarly or creative work.  

• MacSphere – McMaster’s institutional repository for preserving and providing access to scholarly and creative works. Works can be stored by researcher name and department. 
• Zenodo – A general‑purpose open repository recommended by McMaster Library for research outputs, including publications, datasets, and software. Zenodo provides persistent identifiers (DOIs), usage metrics (views, downloads), and products can be linked to researcher ORCIDs. 
• Figshare – A repository for sharing research outputs with persistent identifiers and usage metrics. 

Media, Social, and Digital Dissemination 

Media, social, and digital channels can extend the reach and visibility of research findings. This section includes guidance on working with journalists, writing commentary, using social media, and sharing research through digital platforms. 

• Presentation: Research & Media Relations by Erin Beaulieu and Jennifer Stranges [Slides] 
• External Resource: How to Vet Journalist Requests & Get Interview Ready – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
• Op-Eds  
  • McMaster Resource: Op-Ed Writing Guide – Communications, Marketing & Public Affairs 
  • External Resource: 10 Tips for Researchers to Write a Better Op-Ed – CHI Manitoba 
  • External Resource: Op-ed writing: The Basics – The OpEd Project 
• McMaster Resource: Writing for The Conversation Canada – McMaster Communications, Marketing & Public Affairs 
• News media sources 
  • The Conversation Canada: The Conversation Canada is a non-profit online publisher of analytical and explanatory articles by academic authors, written and edited for a wide general audience
  • Healthy Debate: Healthy Debate publishes commentary and longer reported features about the Canadian health-care system and related subjects. 
  • The Walrus 
• External Resource: Independent and non-mainstream news media sources – Simon Fraser University Library 
• External Resource: A Guide to Using Social Media for Research Dissemination – JBI 
• Journal article: Evaluating video‑based science communication practices: A systematic review