Interview


“If it’s worth doing the research, it’s worth putting time and effort into making sure it is making a difference to someone, somewhere”


channel promotional campaigns around them – advertising on search engines, posting about them on social media, doing PR and email campaigns. One of the bits I have most enjoyed getting to grips with is improving the rankings of research summaries in search engines, so when people search they find information they can understand, but that is based on proper research, rather than more speculative, biased or deliberately misinformative content. This involves identifying trending search terms, targeted clustering of relevant summaries, and the creation of ’pillar pages’ and videos. It’s stuff that digital marketers in consumer sectors would do in their sleep, but it’s exciting to see the same techniques can help more people engage with research.


Is there an area of scholarly communications you are particularly passionate about? I am very passionate about marketing and communications, as you might be able to tell! It just frustrates me to see research not being read and used. If it’s worth doing the research in the first place, it’s worth putting a bit of time and effort into making sure it is making a difference to someone, somewhere. I’m also really passionate


www.researchinformation.info | @researchinfo


about collaboration between the different ‘stakeholders’ in scholarly communication. About 15 years ago I got involved with UKSG, which is a cross-sector association bringing together libraries, publishers, technology providers, intermediaries and all the other organisations that are involved in ‘the information supply chain’. I vividly remember the first UKSG conference I went to and the sense of suddenly accelerating up a learning curve, a blossoming understanding of the day-to- day realities of people that had previously just been names in email threads. That sort of connection and insight made such a difference to how I did my job. Time and again I’ve heard people say that about UKSG – that it helped them understand things from a different perspective. Sometimes over the years it has felt like publishers and libraries are adversaries, so it really matters that different groups come together in pursuit of a common goal from time to time – and get to see each other as human beings rather than corporate entities.


What are your wider hopes for the industry over the next 10 years? Not to bang my drum too incessantly, but… I hope we’ll be taking a more active


role in communicating research beyond academia. There is a great opportunity for a more joined-up approach, and publishers and libraries – by dint of their existing connections and partnerships – would be really well placed to make this happen. At the moment, only the most prestigious research gets the ‘full treatment’ in terms of universities’ PR outreach. There is great potential for the ‘long tail’ of research to be more actively publicised. I think some of what is needed has been derailed by the focus on open access, with a sort of working assumption that enabling the general public, patients, educators and so on to access research papers will be a catalyst for accelerating the impact of that research. But, of course, it isn’t – yes, researchers need access to papers, but wider audiences need simpler summaries or more targeted explanations. It still takes years and years for research recommendations to become normal practice, because of the disconnect between research ‘producers’ and ‘users’. I hope that our industry can help close that gap over the next 10 years.


Lastly, do you have any fascinating hobbies or pastimes you want to tell us about? Nothing all-consuming – a bit like work- me, home-me is also a generalist. I love reading, particularly books set in harsh environments, which somehow make me feel cosy and relaxed. I enjoy my travels. I indulge my creative side from time to time with a bit of painting, photography or collage. I love music and festivals. I sing in an occasional choir that does choral evensongs in cathedrals, which marries my love of singing with my love of architecture!


Interview by Tim Gillett


Summer 2022 Research Information 17


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