Slides from Kudos' rapid-fire presentation at the New England Publishing Collaboration Awards; Kudos was the winner of the Audience Choice award!
Our submission explores how, in an era of information overload, new communications media and rigorous measurement of research impact, researchers are evaluating their publishing choices to consider which publishers will most assist them in ensuring their work is found, read and applied. This both heightens the competition for the best authors, but also creates opportunities for collaboration; the shared Kudos service helps individual publishers increase support for authors, while compiling an aggregated data set from which wider intelligence can be derived about which marketing messages and channels are most effective for increasing readership. By acting as a nexus for collaboration between publishers, Kudos helps align their efforts in pursuit of shared goals around increasing readership and broadening impact.
5. SIGNIFICANCE TO INDUSTRY
Working WITH rather than
AGAINST current “system”
A nexus for collaboration –
aligning publishers’ efforts in
pursuit of shared goals
Good evening everyone. (My name is Rebecca Shumbata). Kudos is a startup that launched last Spring. I’m particularly pleased to be here tonight because I’m the first employee based in Massachusetts.
Today, we are collaborating with 50 publishers, including the Journal of Bone and Joint surgery, Emerald and Wiley, to help increase the reach and impact of research publications.
The idea for Kudos came from a concern that so much research is published, but never read.
And, that’s something we should all be concerned about, because a lot of that research is paid for by our tax dollars.
But obviously, publishers are particularly concerned about it because …
(well, because)… we are in an era of information overload, new ways of communicating, and rigorous measurement of research impact,
Today, researchers are evaluating their publishing choices, and looking at which publishers are most helping to ensure their work is read.
So, Publishers are also competing to attract the best authors!
It is within this space, that we saw an opportunity for collaboration.
An opportunity for a shared service
that would help all publishers increase their support for authors
and at the same time benefit from a bigger data set for learning which kinds of marketing
which messages, which channels – are most effective for increasing readership.
The service we have developed with our publishing partners provides authors with a standard toolkit for explaining their work
and managing their sharing – whether they do that by email, social media, or elsewhere online.
We bring together a range of metrics that show them directly how these simple actionsaffect downloads, discussion and citations to their work.
For Emerald’s authors, using Kudos resulted in three times as many downloads of their work.
Kudos has been a collaboration with publishers right from our proof of concept,
and our partners have shaped our vision and collaborated in its execution at every stage.
The “shared service” approach is better for authors because they can use the same system, wherever they publish.
This then gives publishers an advantage – of being able to see ALL their authors’ communications ALL in one placeinstead of having to track and monitor them across many different networks and media.
Publishers benefit from the aggregate intelligence generated by a collaborative “super-system”and EVERYONE benefits from increased readership.
Our success has come from working WITH rather than against the current system.
By acting as a nexus for collaboration between publishers,our services align their efforts in pursuit of shared goals – increasing readership and wider impact.
We’re still at a very early stage of our development
With ambitious plans to broaden the reach of academic content,
facilitate inter-disciplinary discovery
and help authors and publishers understand and benefit from new communication tools as they become available.
We’re just now beginning to collaborate with universities, societies and fundersso that this Kudos model – of using metrics to motivate authors to do more outreach around their work –can also reap benefits for other parts of the research community…
..and beyond! We are (even) beginning to expand beyond the realms of academic publishing.
We see our current services
as a blueprint for increasing the discoverability and readership of all kinds of publications.
Thank you!