Sharing and Using Your Research
ASHA recognizes the importance of authors’ use of their work in furthering the scholarship and research. Although a copyright transfer is signed by authors at submission, authors should be aware that they retain many rights for noncommercial use of the material. Express permission for use is required only in circumstances stipulated on the copyright transfer form.
Classroom Teaching
Authors may use the final published article in classroom teaching and similar academic settings, provided that the recipients are made aware that the material is copyrighted and is not for further dissemination. An article provided for classroom use must include a link to the Web address of the journal in which it has been published (or is to be published).
Personal Websites and Institutional Repositories
Authors may post on their personal web sites, on department or university intranets, or in university repositories, the final, accepted manuscript along with the abstract from the final, published article when available, provided that the publication information (including the Web address of the journal site) is provided as applicable.
Presentation of Work
Authors may present their accepted manuscripts orally in whole or in part and may use elements of the accepted manuscript as needed to support the presentation.
Reproduction, Re-publication, and Dissemination: Authors may, for professional purposes, make copies of the final, published article, provided that copyright is attributed and that no commercial use is made of the material. Authors may share by e-mail the PDF file of the final, published article for the purpose of dissemination to professional colleagues. Authors may also reuse in their own future works, without permission from ASHA, tables and figures from their article, provided that a full bibliographic citation is provided, including the Web address of the ASHA journal in which the article was originally published.
Using Social Media
As with most every industry, social media has proven to be profoundly impactful on the academic journals market. Authors, readers and, publishers alike are seeking direct and immediate engagement with members of the scholarly community.
Additionally, social media has expanded the types of content that can be included with journal text. Many authors will now include various forms of multimedia content, such as videos, datasets, images, and audio files along with their research. This enables publishers, such as the ASHA Journals, to enhance the discoverability and value of research.
The ASHA journals use social media to increase visibility and promote research. We have several unique means of engagement, which allows for a multichannel conversation in the scholarly community of communication sciences and disorders.
Note:
For practical information on how to converse on digital platforms and maintain civility, please refer to the ASHA Civility Digital Toolkit.
ASHA Journals on Social Media
Research Tuesday
A once-weekly social media initiative (begun in August 2014) in which a recently published ASHA Journals article is selected and the main research findings are summarized, with a link to the article itself. To encourage the broadest dissemination possible, the ASHA Journals team offers complimentary access to the article (which is usually behind the paywall for members and subscribers only) on ASHAWire to all readers, starting on that Tuesday and extending for a period of 2 weeks, after which time the article changes from being free to once again being behind the ASHA member/subscriber paywall.
- Social media channels for Research Tuesday include Twitter and LinkedIn
- Articles are selected on the basis of trending topics in the CSD discipline.
- The LinkedIn post typically goes into more depth than the Twitter post for the selected article.
ASHA’s “Research Tuesday” evolved from a concept originally created by ASHA member Rachel Wynn for SLP bloggers; it’s discussed in this ASHA Leader Blog post.
WeSpeechies Rotating Curation (@WeSpeechies RoCur)
In a partnership with the WeSpeechies group (based in Australia), called @WeSpeechies RoCur, ASHA provides 14-day free access (different from “open access”) to ASHA scholarly publications: The WeSpeechies curator can choose up to 10 articles from ASHA Journals and up to 10 articles from Perspectives. The purpose is to provide content and springboards for discussion on topics of interest to the SLP community (in Australia, they are often referred to as “speech and language therapists” or “SLTs”) as they engage in periodic online chats led by experts in particular subject areas. Learn more about this important effort on the WeSpeechies website.
@ASHAJournals and @SIGPerspectives on Twitter
ASHA Journals has two Twitter accounts, one for general journals announcements and information regarding the journals AJA, AJSLP, JSLHR, and LSHSS and another for Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Shortly after an article goes live, we tweet and pin about it. Dissemination of ASHA Journals and Perspectives content via @ASHAJournals and @SIGPerspectives Twitter accounts is an important way to build awareness of these resources far beyond the subscription base for the publications. Awareness is the key first step for having the work lead to impacts in clinical practice or inform subsequent research efforts.
Since launching in August of 2014, the @ASHAJournals Twitter account has amassed over 16,000 followers!
ASHA on Pinterest
ASHA’s Pinterest page has over 25,000 followers and 40 boards. Our board is called ASHA Journals, and it’s one of the most followed/frequented ASHA Pinterest Boards. We are active on Pinterest, typically posting upon publication of every issue, including special issues and forums. Our Pinterest board has a high level of activity and provides another avenue in to the published articles
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines find your article, which results in a higher ranking in the search results returned by those search engines. This can mean you gain higher visibility, attract more readers, and potentially increase citations.
It is helpful to consider SEO techniques as you write. Think of a brief phrase or a few academic keywords specific to your field that a researcher might search on to find your article, then choose two to three appropriate keywords and phrases for your article. Once you have your list of keywords, you can take the following steps to enhance the discoverability and visibility of your work:
- Feature the keywords in the title and abstract.
- Include the keywords, as applicable, in captions and notes for photographs, images, graphs, and tables.
- Incorporate keywords into headings or subheadings, as appropriate, for the various sections of your article.
Be judicious in the use of keywords so their repetition does not become distracting for the reader. Overuse of keyword phrases can become self-defeating as search engines may exclude items they consider stuffed with keywords.
In addition to keywords, the volume of inbound links also plays a factor in search engine rankings. Make sure you place links to your article from relevant websites (e.g., your institution’s website, Wikipedia, and blogs) and share on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or other social media platforms. Engage with colleagues and professional society social media accounts, especially around annual conference time. Include the DOI and a link to your article along with text to announce a new article whenever possible.
These SEO techniques can help to get your research outputs discovered and, when combined with a variety of outreach and promotional efforts, can help maximize the impact of your work.
Impact Tools
GrowKudos
ASHA is working with a free service called GrowKudos to help our authors maximize the impact of their published work. You can use GrowKudos to
- Open up research to new audiences
- Track the most effective networks for getting your work read, discussed, and cited
- Learn where to focus your efforts to make best use of time
- Improve the metrics by which your reach is evaluated.
Altmetric
Altmetric data is now available on articles published in the ASHA journals (the American Journal of Audiology; the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology; the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools; and Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups).
The Altmetric data available on the journal articles allows you to:
- See the attention that each article is receiving from nontraditional sources, including mainstream and social media, published policy documents, and online reference managers
- Explore the conversations surrounding the content
- Identify recent papers your peers think are interesting.
