As part of Virtually Social I organised a discussion on the publishing of engagement work. I was joined by:
Dr Martin Archer, PE & Outreach Officer, Queen Mary University London (@martinarcher)
Sophie Duncan, Director of Business and Strategy, @NCCPE
Dr Steph Januchowski-Hartley, Research Fellow, Swansea University (@ConnectedWaters)
Below are the questions we asked the 80 engagement professionals and enthusiasts we had in the room.
When planning engagement how often do you research literature on the engagement process or concepts? (opposed to the topic of the engagement)
4% I always do (3)
17% I have for most of my projects (12)
30% I have occasionally (21)
34% I have on a rare occasion (24)
13% Never (9)
Who should we be writing for when submitting our work for peer reviewed journals? (tick all that apply) (n=56)
80% Public Engagement Professionals (45)
73% Science Communicators (41)
66% Researchers of Engagement (37)
46% Educators (26)
46% Research funders (26)
42% Museum and Heritage workers (24)
28% The public (16)
2% Don’t know (1)
I would feel confident writing for… (n=55)
91% Blog/news article (50)
73% Evaluation report (40)
65% Commentary/opinion/reflective piece (36)
38% Engagement paper with nonstandard narrative (21)
25% Natural Sciences/Engineering/maths research paper (14)
20% Qualitative social science paper (11)
15% Quantitive social science paper (8)
1% None of the above (1)
How have you engaged with Research for All? (n=54)
44% I hadn’t heard of the journal before today (24)
35% I have read contribution(s) (19)
15% I know the journal but haven’t engaged with it (15%)
4% I have done more than one of these options (2)
2% I have written for the journal (1)
If you would like to publish for a journal (but haven’t) what is the main thing holding you back?
35% I don’t know how to get started (19)
13% I don’t have time to write about my work (7)
11% I worry my engagement isn’t high enough quality (6)
9% I need more support (5)
9% I don’t have the analysis I requite (5)
9% Don’t know (5)
7% Finding a suitable journal relevant to my work (4)
6% I don’t know what the “angle” for my paper would be (3)