According to the report, an ongoing concern is how to effectively communicate the value of agriculture research to the wider public. Outreach to the public is a key component of the land-grant mission, and agriculture scholars are concerned that the public does not understand the value and insights of their research. (Not to mention, if your research is not easily available and understandable to the public, it will be less likely to inform important policy decisions.) The report mentions digital media platforms and social networking as channels with the potential to strengthen public communication.
How Pendergrass Library can help:
1) Choosing where to publish? We support publishing in open access journals like PeerJ: A great deal of scholarly publishing exists behind paywalls. Open access or open research is a movement to make scholarly research openly available to the public. Pendergrass has an institutional agreement with PeerJ to cover the cost of publishing. Did you know PeerJ will also promote your work on its social media account?
2) Promoting your research on social media or to a wider audience? We support infographic design and more: Are you interested in turning your research results into an infographic, flyer, or handout for the public? Learn about helpful design tools and use graphic design software on Pendergrass Library computers. If you need one-on-one help or are interested in a workshop on turning research into infographics, please email credmon1@utk.edu.
