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Author: Andrea Goncalves

Early career researchers bring valuable new perspectives to the research community, along with a curiosity that helps push knowledge forward. As they start publishing, apply for funding, share their first results and find their voice within their communities, having the right support can make a huge difference at this early stage. Therefore, understanding open access, visibility and the tools that support effective research communication can help researchers lay the foundations for their careers.

Recognising this, ���ϳԹ���’s Account Development (AD) team created a dedicated webinar series for institutions across Europe. These sessions introduce researchers to open access agreements and practical strategies for promoting their work. The response from participants has been overwhelmingly positive, and one researcher’s story stands out as testament to the impact of these sessions.

Building researcher confidence through skills‑focused webinars

As researchers begin shaping their publishing journey, many tell us they are eager to understand how to make their work more visible and how to communicate their findings with confidence. It’s not always obvious where to start, especially when juggling publishing pressures, funding expectations and the realities of early‑career life. That’s why we designed these webinars with the researcher’s needs in mind, to give them practical skills that can be applied immediately to strengthen both their research communication and professional profile.

During our session “How to Promote Your Research,” we explored what research visibility really means for researchers today. We looked at how strong communication can support funding applications, inspire collaboration, increase readership and contribute positively to the institution’s reputation. The response was extraordinary, with 560 researchers joining live, an incredible indication of how important this topic is across the research community.

What I appreciated most were the thoughtful questions that were asked about adapting their communication for different audiences and using digital platforms more effectively. These are challenges many early‑career researchers face, and they’re exactly the areas were small, practical adjustments can make a significant difference.

In the session, we introduced several techniques to start using right away, including:

• Using storytelling to bring clarity and meaning to findings
• Creating visual abstracts and multimedia summaries
• Engaging with audiences through social media, blogs, podcasts and webinars
• Using altmetrics to understand how their work is being shared and discussed

Each of these approaches helps build a wider understanding of how research is received beyond traditional academic metrics. More importantly, they empower researchers to take an active role in shaping how your work travels within your field and beyond it.

Our goal in these webinars is simple: To provide the tools, confidence and insight to communicate research in ways that feel authentic, accessible and impactful. And from the energy and engagement researchers bring to every session, it’s clear how committed they are to amplifying their work and sharing it with the world.

How one researcher discovered the hidden impact of her work

Among the attendees was Maria Babakhanyan Stone, a postdoctoral researcher who joined the session out of personal curiosity and a desire to discover new ways to share her work. During her PhD, she had put enormous effort into her dissertation and often looked for creative ways to make astronomy more accessible, recording YouTube explainer videos, developing visuals from her thesis figures and running workshops for learners of all ages. Communicating science clearly had always been important to her, and the webinar offered a chance to build on that passion. This opportunity was made possible through the support and resources of INAF (the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics), where she now works as a postdoc.

When we introduced Altmetrics, the concept was completely new to her. Hearing how online engagement can reveal interest in research beyond citations caught her attention, and she decided to take a look at the publicly available download data for her thesis at the University of Turku.

What she found truly made her day. A quick look at the university’s archived metrics showed that her astronomy thesis had been downloaded more often than others in the same topic area and topped several usage rankings. Her thesis stood out over a seven‑year period and even ranked among the most‑downloaded astronomy theses of the past decade. For Maria, this uncovered a new and unexpected dimension of impact.

She captured the moment beautifully in her blog: “I am thrilled to celebrate a small achievement which I discovered unexpectedly. I found out through happenstance that my PhD Thesis in Astronomy has been downloaded impactfully more times than others in the topic of astronomy from the University of Turku… what it means is that my PhD Thesis is making a difference with its social impact.”

For her, the discovery was meaningful not just because of the numbers, but because it showed that her effort to make astronomy welcoming and engaging was reaching real readers. Her thesis had found an audience genuinely interested in her work and her creative outreach was helping her research travel further than she realised.

Maria’s story is a powerful reminder of how empowering it can be for early‑career researchers to see the broader life of their work. A single idea introduced during the webinar sparked a deeper understanding of how her research resonates and strengthened her confidence in .

Understanding the full reach of research

Maria’s experience reflects something we see more and more among early‑career researchers: a growing desire to understand the full influence of their work beyond traditional measures. Citations will always matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. Downloads, online mentions, media attention and social sharing can offer a much more immediate sense of how the research is being discovered, discussed and used across global networks.

These kinds of engagement can spark new collaborations, strengthen funding or job applications and help researchers recognise the real‑world impact their work is already having. For institutions, supporting this broader understanding means giving researchers the confidence to communicate their work effectively and take proactive steps to increase visibility. These approaches enable researchers to pursue new opportunities, engage broader communities and advance steadily through each stage of their publishing process.

Working together to support the research community

Looking ahead, institutions continue to play a vital role in helping early‑career researchers thrive. Through the Author Journey series, we remain committed to offering workshops and webinars that provide practical, skills‑focused guidance on understanding open access policies, promoting research effectively, navigating both traditional and alternative metrics, building a strong digital presence and approaching the publishing process with clarity and confidence. These sessions are designed to help researchers find their voice, understand the reach of their work and grow their confidence as they contribute to the global research community. Every researcher’s story is unique, and for many, a single webinar can spark new insight that reshapes how they think about visibility, communication and impact.

To continue strengthening support for early‑career researchers, we invite institutions to explore our open access resources, including guidance on managing article processing charges, insights into how open access is transforming research and global stories of open access in action. Institutions can also register for upcoming webinars in the Author Journey series to offer their research communities practical, inspiring and actionable support. If your institution is looking for ways to deepen its engagement or enhance the support available to researchers, these resources and sessions are an easy way to get started and we would be delighted to welcome you along.

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