You’ve done the hard work; you created and conducted a unique research project and written wrote a stellar manuscript that has finally have been accepted for publication in a journal. So, you’re done, right? 

Not quite. While journal publication is a significant accomplishment and an excellent way to share your research, it only reaches one target audience. Now, it’s time to think about other avenues for disseminating your research to more diverse groups of stakeholders. 

Dissemination, often a neglected step in the research process, involves sharing your findings beyond the academic community. This is not just a procedural step, but an ethical obligation that involves making your research both transparent and applicable.  

Making sure that research findings reach the participants, local institutions, and wider communities is crucial. It not only benefits a broader range of stakeholders but also improves its overall impact. 

Because they also recognize the importance of dissemination, many funding organizations now require it as standard practice. Some federal grants in many countries even require applicants to submit a dissemination plan as part of the application package.  

To help you through this process, we’ve developed a comprehensive guide that offers practical advice and key strategies for successful dissemination. By starting early and following these steps efficiently, you can maximize the impact and contribution of your research. 

What is dissemination, and why is it important? 

In academic research, dissemination refers to the process of distributing and communicating research findings to a broader audience beyond the academic community. Dissemination aims to ensure that research findings are accessible, understandable, and usable by these diverse audiences. 

As you can see, dissemination is a critical component of the research process. It works to democratize your research findings to benefit both the academic community and society at large. 

When should I start thinking about dissemination? 

The best- case scenario is to start considering dissemination-oriented questions concurrently with developing your research goals and hypotheses. In fact, you might already be doing this without realizing it by asking: 

1. What are the main objectives of this research? 
2. Who are our target audiences? 
3. What are some ways to communicate with and engage these audiences? 
4. What do we hope to accomplish by sharing this information with the world? 

Initiate these conversations with your research team early on so that the conclusions can guide both the research and the interpretation of its results. Here are some details to consider when building these  dissemination contexts: 

When pinpointing your motivation- 

• Establish your ultimate goals for dissemination, whether it’s to raise awareness, engage the audience, or encourage participation and feedback. 
• Decide if those goals require ongoing, periodic, or distinct dissemination efforts. 
• Be realistic about your team’s available time, resources, and capabilities, and determine early on if you’ll need to outsource any of these efforts.

When mapping your audience

• Identify exactly who you want the research results to reach and why.
• Determine who is most affected by your research and who might find it most valuable. Understand the reasons behind this.
• Learn about your target audiences' needs, expectations, and preferred communication channels.

When choosing media and formats

• Consider the communication preferences for each target audience and discuss their accessibility.
• Tailor key messages for each group by understanding what information is important to them and why.
• Create a unique identity for branding your research story across formats and platforms that intrigues your audience and resonates with them.

By choosing to disseminate research early and often, you have the opportunity to not only showcase your team's productivity but also highlight the work's progress. These efforts don’t need to be overwhelming or complex but should be deliberate and consistent.

Offering regular updates through blogs or social media posts, for example, is shown to build confidence in the research and to elicit positive feedback. Using dissemination strategies to encourage the active involvement of the public and other target audiences inevitably boosts the societal impact of your research.

What are some dissemination strategies?

When it comes to disseminating information, choosing the right strategy can significantly impact the effectiveness of your communication. Dissemination techniques are broadly categorized into active and passive strategies where:

• Passive dissemination strategies involve broadly distributing information without tailoring the approach to a specific audience, like when your publication is posted to a searchable database. Typically very cost effective.
• Active dissemination strategies use specific techniques and communication channels to spread evidence-based information to a targeted audience, such as offering a guide for replication. Tend to be more resource intensive.

Evidence suggests that a combined dissemination approach is more effective than relying on a single method. While combining methods requires more resources and budget allocation, it tends to yield better results. 

Here are some examples of active and passive dissemination strategies:  

Insights

These passive strategies rely on making information available to a wide audience without actively engaging specific individuals or groups. While they can be effective for raising awareness, they often do not achieve the same level of engagement as active dissemination strategies. 

Active dissemination strategies, on the other hand, are designed to engage specific audiences more directly and personally. This approach often prompts immediate action or feedback, thereby increasing the impact and effectiveness of your dissemination efforts. 

Are there general considerations for all of these strategies? 

Regardless of the target audiences and strategies you choose, keep these key considerations in mind:

• Understand the informational needs of your audiences and the avenues for reaching them. 
• Ensure the information is short and concise to maintain audience interest. 
• Communicate in simple language to ensure understanding across all audiences. 
• Organize findings clearly by emphasizing the main points, which should be easy to understand and follow. 
• Use graphics, readable fonts, and reasonable spacing to make the content appealing. 
• Provide interesting information to engage the viewer. 
• Offer practical suggestions for applying the findings. 

To increase the impact of your dissemination efforts, it is important to employ these tactics to make the information more personal and relatable: 

Tailoring your message- a multifactorial process that involves: 

1. Evaluating the unique traits and characteristics of the individuals in your target audience. 
2. Creating personalized messages based on the insights you’ve learned about the audience. 
3. Choosing a variety of appropriate channels for delivering your message. 

Three main tailoring strategies include: 

• Content matching- Aligning content with the specific needs of the individual. 
• Personalization- Making messages feel personal and relevant to the individual. 
• Feedback- Providing feedback based on the individual's response or behavior. 

Targeting your message- based on audience characteristics and includes:

• Developing an approach for a defined population or subgroup based on shared characteristics such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, or language.
• Designing effective messages that are relevant and engaging for those particular groups.

Using narratives- story-like writing that focuses on:

• Providing appealing details, characters, and a plot, in either the first or third person.
• Using characters and situations in stories as models for audience learning and behavior change.

Framing your message- presents the same evidence in various ways by:

• Adjusting the ways information is presented to highlight different aspects and relate to diverse audience perspectives.
• Emphasizing either positive or negative consequences, known as a gain or a loss frame.

Try using a variety of these tactics that are customized to your audience’s needs and preferences. A multifactorial approach not only broadens your reach but also reinforces the retention and application of your research findings.

By thoughtfully considering each of these elements and leveraging the strengths of numerous communication platforms, you will develop a dissemination strategy that is comprehensive, engaging, and impactful. 

How can I develop a dissemination plan? 

Many of the agencies funding research projects require that a dissemination plan be included in your proposal package. Even when this is not the case, creating a formal plan at the beginning of your project offers many benefits.  

By organizing dissemination goals around specific milestones in the research process, you can make sure that the appropriate resources are available for each milestone. This proactive approach makes dissemination efforts not only more efficient but also more thorough. 

Use the communication strengths and capabilities of the research team to form your dissemination plan. Set team members up for success by assigning tasks based on their individual strengths, and allow them ample time to prepare.  

While each dissemination plan is unique, they all should address these key questions: 

1. Why?  Define the purpose of your dissemination efforts. 
2. Who?  Identify your target audience for each venture. 
3. What?  Determine the message that you are trying to share. 
4. How?  Select the appropriate methods for dissemination. 
5. When?  Create a timeline to organize your efforts. 

Why 

Defining the purpose of dissemination lays the foundation for deciding on the audience, message, method, and timing. Your goal may be to: 

• Raise awareness by letting a broader audience know about your work. 
• Educate the community by informing others about your findings. 
• Engage the public to gather feedback regarding your research. 

Or 

• Promote the implementation of your study results. 

Although you may have multiple goals for dissemination, it’s important to clearly define each one. By understanding the intent behind each effort, you can guide the direction and focus of your activities to have the greatest impact on your target audience. 

Who 

The success of your research dissemination depends significantly on identifying and targeting the right audiences. The individuals, groups, and organizations interested in your project and its outcomes need to be precisely identified and informed. 

Taking the time to identify the most relevant target audiences ensures that your findings reach those who can benefit from them. Targeting a particular audience has these key effects on the dissemination process: 

As you can see, identifying and understanding your target audience is crucial for effective research dissemination. Here are some key strategies for making your selections: 

Conduct a stakeholder analysis- Consider all potential groups that may have an interest in your research, including: 

• Internal Audiences- Project team members, institutional colleagues. 
• External Audiences- Industry experts, policy makers, media, the general public. 

Segment your audience- Divide your broader audience into smaller, more manageable segments based on shared characteristics or interests, like: 

• Industry- Target professionals in specific fields related to your research. 
• Geography- Focus on local, regional, or international audiences depending on the scope of your research. 
• Interest groups- Engage with specific communities or organizations that have a vested interest in your research topic. 

Understand audience needs and preferences- Research the communication preferences and needs of your target audience segments, such as:  

• Preferred communication channels- Determine whether your audience prefers academic journals, trade publications, social media, newsletters, or conferences. 
• Content style and format- Tailor the complexity and style of your content to suit the audience. 

Develop clear, tailored messages- Craft specific messages for each audience segment, focusing on the aspects of your research that are most relevant to them by considering: 

• Relevance- Highlight how your research applies to their field or interests. 
• Impact- Emphasize the potential benefits or applications of your findings. 
• Engagement- Use clear, accessible language and compelling visuals to keep your audience engaged. 

By understanding who your audience is and what they need, you can tailor your messages and choose the right channels to maximize the impact of your research.  

What 

Once you’ve narrowed down the target audiences, creating content that accurately reflects your research outcomes in ways that are relevant to each group is important. This is done by tailoring your messages, that is, personalizing them to reflect the needs and perspectives of the audience. 

Begin tailoring your message by isolating a single target audience and then asking yourself these questions: 

1. Why should this audience care about my research? 
2. How does my research affect or impact this audience? 

And 

1. What key aspects of my research might interest them? 

With these answers in hand, you are prepared to design a messaging strategy that is comprehensive, engaging, and impactful for each specific audience. Here are some tips for writing tailored messages for effective dissemination: 

Tailoring your messages for each target audience is crucial when deciding what you want to communicate through your research. Following these suggestions will help you create messages that are engaging, clear, and motivating for each specific group. 

How 

 Effectively communicating with your target audience requires choosing the best methods for research dissemination. Here’s how you can approach this process: 

To reach the right people and achieve the desired impact, you must thoughtfully select the dissemination methods that reflect the audience’s preferences as well as your own research goals. This careful alignment maximizes the effectiveness and reach of your findings. 

When 

Implementing a timeline for your dissemination efforts is crucial to maintain structured, timely, and organized communication of your research findings. It helps with: 

• Coordination of activities- Avoid overlaps or gaps in communication efforts. 
• Efficient resource allocation- Maximize the impact of resources and ensure they are available when needed. 

AND 

• Maintaining momentum- Motivates the team and stakeholders to stay focused on achieving objectives within specified timeframes. 

A timeline also enables the systematic monitoring of your progress, providing opportunities to make necessary adjustments to your dissemination strategy. This dynamic approach ensures that your communication efforts are responsive to evolving circumstances and stakeholder feedback. 

Final Thoughts

Dissemination should not be an afterthought but rather a deliberate and integral step of the research process. By embracing diverse dissemination strategies early and consistently, you have the opportunity to bridge the gap between academia and society. 

Engaging a broader audience not only promotes collaboration but also increases the relevance of academic research in today's world. Whether by fostering informed discussions and policy improvements or through spurring innovation and addressing social challenges, thoughtful dissemination helps expand our collective knowledge. 

Our aim here is to equip you with the essential tools for effectively disseminating your research findings. By doing so, we can empower communities with informed insights that drive positive change across diverse fields of study.  

Get to know your audience, start planning early, and find creative ways to share your research with the world. Let's use the power of dissemination to transform complex research concepts into clear, actionable knowledge that can benefit everyone.