Step 9: Disseminate & Promote

Sharing your findings is part of the research lifecycle, not an afterthought. Communicating your work raises its visibility, meets sponsor and university expectations for openness, and connects your research to the people who can build on it. Partners across campus — including the Z. Smith Reynolds Library and University Marketing and Communications (UMC) — can help.

Share your results openly

Need to meet a sponsor’s public-access or open-science requirements? Expand this section for guidance on data sharing, repositories, and the Open Access Fund.

• Many sponsors expect the results of funded research to be made publicly available.
• Follow your sponsor’s public-access and open-science requirements, and plan for how you will share the data underlying your findings. 
• The Z. Smith Reynolds Library can advise on open access, repositories, and data sharing. 
• Open Access Fund: This is a fund established to help our faculty publish in open access journals. Publications that are open access have 60% more citations (on average) than those behind a paywall. Eligibility is limited and criteria are listed here.
  • Federally-funded projects are eligible only when open access publishing costs are not allowable, not fully covered by the funding agency, or in cases in which the publication is completed after the award has fully closed out.

Publish and present

Preparing a journal article, poster, or presentation from your funded work? Expand this section for sponsor acknowledgment requirements and tracking your publications.

• Prepare your journal articles, conference posters, and presentations, and acknowledge your sponsor as required by the award. 
• Keep track of publications resulting from the award, since sponsors often ask you to report them.

Reach a broader audience

Want your research to reach people outside your field? Expand this section to see how University Communications and the Provost’s office can help amplify your work.

• Consider how to bring your work to audiences beyond your field — through public outreach, news features, and university communications channels. UMC and the Provost’s Office can help amplify research with broad interest. Contact Stephanie Hudson () with questions.

Return results to participants (for Human Subjects Research)

• Where appropriate and consistent with your approved IRB protocol, plan how and whether to share results with the people who took part in your study.