Dissemination
Dissemination is an important part of the literature review process it allows your research to reach a wider audience, contributing to the body of knowledge in your field. When you publish a literature review, you create a record that addresses a gap in human knowledge, helping others to build on your work.
In a health context, the information and data synthesised in a literature review provide an overview and evaluation of the available research to health practitioners. This saves practitioners time in finding and appraising all the available research themselves, and supports informed decision-making based on evidence.
The guidelines you have followed in your literature review may contain requirements regarding the sharing of your research findings, ensuring that your literature review is transparent and reproducible.
Publishing your review
To disseminate your review, you need to find an appropriate platform to publish your review. Reviews can be published through organisations like Cochrane Collaboration or Joanna Briggs Institute, specialist review journals, academic journals, institutional repositories. Researchers should consider publishing in open platforms like Open Science Framework.
Researchers need to ensure that the publishing platform suits your review topic, your target audience and meets any guideline requirements.
Finding an appropriate journal
When looking for an appropriate journal to publish your review, it's essential to ensure that the journal aligns with the discipline area addressed in your review. Here are some ways to help you find the right journal:
- Explore key databases
Run keyword searches in key databases using terms from your review to identify similar review articles and the journals that publish them.
- Explore additional databases
Run keyword searches in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) for open access journals, Scopus or Web of Science for ranked journals, and OpenAlex or Google Scholar.
- Consider popular journals
Journals that you often read or cite in your research are likely suitable publications for your review.
- Seek colleague suggestions
Ask your colleagues for recommendations on where to publish your review. They might have valuable insights or experiences with certain journals that could be beneficial for you.
Tip
Check out the useful resources the Library offers to help you with publishing your research: Where Should I Publish (WSIP), Your Publishing Plan, and Open Access guide.
Use the Think. Check. Submit. checklist to identify trustworthy journals to publish your review.
Promoting your review
Promoting your review helps to increase its research impact in your discipline and other related fields. It's very important to demonstrate the impact of your research, as this can raise your research profile locally, nationally, and internationally. Through promotion colleagues can see your work, generating greater awareness of it, and develop your research profile and reputation.
There are different approaches for promoting your review. Below are some ways to get you started:
- Conferences
Conference presentations and posters are an important part of scholarly communication, especially for sharing new research ideas and preliminary findings. Presenting at a high impact conference can help raise the visibility of your research.
- Social Media
Many researchers choose to share and promote their research outputs via social media. Ensure you follow Deakin University's media and social media policies when communicating your research online.
- OA Repositories
Depositing your publication into an open access (OA) repository like Deakin’s institutional repository, Deakin Research Online (DRO) makes your research discoverable throughout the world.
Tip
When promoting your review think about how each method of promotion will aid the impact goals of your review, whether it will reach your target audience, and the tone you want to communicate.
Measuring the impact of your review
Once your review has been published it's important to track and evaluate how your review has been received, cited, applied, or discussed, within academia and beyond. Measuring the contribution and impact helps demonstrate the influence of your review on knowledge, policy, and practice.
Measuring the impact of your review can show whether your work is shaping future research, informing decisions, or reaching wider audiences. It also helps you showcase the value of your research to funders, institutions, or collaborators.
Research metrics
Different metrics and narratives can be used to show that a review has had impact. Below are some ways to get you started:
- Author profiles
Set up and maintain your author profiles in ORCID, in Scopus and in Web of Science to help you to track how often your review is cited by others. Times cited is one common metric used to indicate academic impact.
- Altmetrics
Altmetrics can capture attention beyond scholarly citations, including mentions in social media, news outlets and policy documents. The Research Metrics dashboard can help you explore these.
Note
For more information and training on measuring the contribution and impact of your research check out the Research Metrics page.