Utilization of Research Dissemination

Research is the key to driving innovation and improvements and is used by the health care system to drive change in various areas including clinical practice.

What is the purpose of research dissemination?

Research dissemination is a dissemination of the findings from a study put together in a format, to relay the information effectively to the right people. This is vital to enable researchers to utilize information gained and continue with research using the most efficient methods. Dissemination can be done throughout a study and provides an opportunity to share any knowledge or advancements. This, in turn, will increase stakeholder engagement and create a secondary interest from other influential opinion leaders that become engaged, through the findings explained in the dissemination.

One question that can usefully guide the entire approach to dissemination is:

What will change if communications are completely successful?

You don’t just want to get your findings into the public domain, you want specific audiences to receive them and act upon them. What kind of action then, among key audiences, equates with success?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690672/

Using an impact log

An impact log is a useful tool for understanding how to plan strategies for continued research. The log enables researchers to access feedback on the findings by collating and reviewing various resources including stakeholder reactions, peer review papers and references to the research in the media.

Knowledge translation (KT) techniques

Before considering how to present findings, it is vital to understand how your research will demonstrate your initial objectives. This will consist of the findings that verify your objective or question the findings of other bodies of research.

KT techniques involve in two formats, end-of-grant and integrated knowledge translation (iKT)

End-of-grant KT is designed to present the completed findings from the research in a simple to understand format. An End-of-grant KT can be shared in various ways including, peer-reviewed papers, support and structure guidelines and shared at conference presentations and through press releases.

Integrated knowledge translation (iKT) requires collaboration with other researchers. This increases the probability of the results being recognized and used effectively by many different stakeholders due to the elimination of control by one researcher to utilize information to support a specific objective.

Methods for the dissemination of research results

Conferences and exhibitions provide an unrivalled opportunity to share research with the most appropriate bodies. This is more than often done either through a spoken presentation or the poster format. The aim is to gain interest and display findings of a particular area of research, which is also being presented by competing various bodies.

Medical peer-reviewed journals, are another avenue and publish good research disseminations. They provide a way for a wider audience to locate your research to attract interest and investment in your continued research studies.

Research dissemination can also be shared with bodies such as the World Health Organisation to further validate findings and establish new areas of concern that need further investigation.

'Research is of no use unless it gets to the people who need to use it'

Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health

Publishing Research Dissemination in Medical Journals

Funding bodies encourage publishing research disseminations in “Open Access” journals; journals that accept IR research include:

Health Policy and Planning

Tropical Medicine and International Health

Social Science and Medicine

Human Resources for Health

Global Public Health

Community Health Education

The Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

Once you have chosen a journal ensure you carefully review all of the submission guidelines.