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When it comes to boosting the impact of your research, there is no finish line. As a society, we are always learning new things and communicating in new ways. So for our research to be the most effective, we have to continually improve and progress to the next level—to the next level of academic understanding and to the next level of engagement with society.

Further reading and sources

If you are looking to read more about how to boost the impact of your research, we recommend the following resources, which we have used to help prepare our ‘how to’ guides:

 Please contact maxime.paulis@maastrichtuniversity.nl for questions regarding
individual support (at the UM Faculty of Law) for boosting the impact of your research.

 

Want to give a quick boost to the visibility of your research? At the Maastricht University Faculty of Law, we are happy to help in any way we can, including offering personalised support for promoting your research. To help you give your research an immediate boost, we have prepared a quick start guide that you can follow. This guide takes you through simple steps that can help you improve the visibility of your research and boost its impact right away.  What better way to start than by picking the low hanging fruit?

Quick start guide for improving your findability

Making it easier for others to find your research is the first step towards boosting its impact. Improving the visibility of your work results in increased citations and the expansion of your network. It is also important to lay the groundwork for your overall approach to communication, and we have outlined the steps to help you do just that. This will make your communication more effective and will make it easier to take the next steps.

1. Upload all of your publications to PURE

Be sure to submit all of your publications to the Institutional Repository of Maastricht University (Pure). From there, the Maastricht University Library makes sure that your publication or Green Open Access author’s version (if access to the published version is prohibited by the publisher) is indexed in all major search engines for the world to find, download and read.

2. Update your personal profile page (PPP) on the UM website

Your personal profile page on the Maastricht University website provides an overview of your role at the university, your areas of expertise, your publications and your work for third parties. You should keep this page up to date so people know what you are working on, and make sure your contact details are correct so people can get in touch. Find out how to edit your personal profile page here.

3. Create an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCiD) and profile 

ORCID is a personal ID number for researchers, similar to an ISBN is for books. It provides you with a unique and persistent identifier, connecting you and your research activities throughout your career. Signing up for an ORCID identifier and using it in your research workflows will ensure that you receive credit for your work. It can also simplify manuscript submissions and improve author search results. This is extremely useful if you have used multiple combinations of your name across your publications or if you share a name with other researchers. Find out more about ORCID and how to link your identifier with PURE on UM’s ORCID support page.    

4. Update your social media profiles

If you already have social media accounts on platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, check out your profiles and make sure they are up to date. Ask yourself what you can do to promote your research using your profile. Can you add any past or recent publications to your profile? Can you add your ORCID iD, link to your research output in PURE or link to your personal profile page on the UM website? For more on how to use social media to boost your research impact, see our social media guide. 

5. Set up your network to build your online presence

It is important to consider what you want to achieve by communicating and engaging with others about your research. You may have multiple communication goals, so write them down in order of importance and make sure that your communication supports your goals. Some common goals that researchers have are:

  • to promote interesting aspects of your research and generate interest among a wider audience
  • to explain insights from your research in plain language to boost scientific understanding among the general public
  • to review books or articles and improve your profile as a subject-matter expert
  • to demonstrate the social impact of your research to facilitate public engagement in implementing the results
  • to comment on court rulings to explain the legal impact to other academics, professionals and the public
  • to persuade policymakers or voters to take evidence-based actions
  • to develop a professional network to get information and feedback relevant to your work

6. Identify your target audiences

As you get started with promoting your research, what kind of audiences do you want to reach with your communication? Be as specific as possible. Are there certain segments of each group that you want to focus on? List them in order of importance. Below are some general examples, which can be divided into more specific segments:

  • the general public
  • academics in or outside your field
  • students
  • policymakers
  • lawyers
  • prosecutors
  • judges
  • citizens involved with social organisations

Determining your target audiences will help you identify the most effective ways to reach these audiences. For instance, if you are using social media, undergraduate students may be more likely to use Instagram, whereas postdocs may be more likely to use Twitter. Twitter may also be more ideal if you are looking to connect with policymakers and social organisations, for instance. 

7. Map out your ideal network

Determine your ideal network and list the specific people and organisations that you want to engage with. This includes specific members of your communication target groups from step 6 and specific organisations and people that you want to get information from and engage with online (by following them on social media, reading and engaging with their blogs or participating in or collaborating on events).

Identifying your ideal network means that you have a ready-made list of which people and organisations you want to connect with on social media. It also helps you determine which channels you want to use, which blogs you want to follow and which people and organisations you want to reach when you promote your events. Furthermore, it helps you to determine how to craft your messages to effectively facilitate engagement with members of your ideal network.

8. Decide where you want to start and take the first steps!

You can start anywhere, but we recommend starting with the area that you find the most interesting. Are you curious about joining a social media or want to boost your impact on a platform you are already on? Then follow our step-by-step guide on ‘How to use social media’. Want to try your hand at blogging first? Follow our guide ‘How to use blogs’.  

 Is there another form of communication that you want to know more about besides those listed above? Let us know by sending an email to our Faculty of Law research communication advisor, Maxime Paulis at maxime.paulis@maastrichtuniversity.nl.

Study Abroad Information Request Form

At the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience we are proud of the research studies conducted by our researchers. But we cannot do it without you. Do you want to be a participant in one of the cutting edge FPN research studies? Take a look below at the ongoing studies.

Current studies you can take part in:

Stories We Remember: A Study on News and Recall

Description: In this study, participants will read several news stores and be asked to rate their memory for these events. This questionnaire takes approximately 25-30 minutes to complete. At the end of the survey, participants can indicate if they want to receive Sona credits or enter the raffle for a 15€ Amazon gift card.

Join the study now!

Study on psilocybin, attention, anxiety, and brain activity

Download our flyer.

We are investigating whether the psychedelic psilocybin changes attention and cognition beyond the acute drug experience, and whether these changes are linked to anxiety symptoms and brain function.

We are looking for healthy adults aged 18–40 who have previously used a psychedelic drug and experience mild anxiety or social anxiety in daily life.

Participation includes:

  • 1 dosing day with psilocybin or placebo
  • Short follow-up test sessions over the next 4 days
  • Questionnaires, computer tasks, blood and saliva samples
  • Longer-term follow-up assessments over 3 months
  • Optional MRI sessions for a subset of participants

Total participation is 13.5 hours spread over about 14 weeks (or 17.5 hours if selected for MRI)

Compensation: €176 (or €228 with MRI)

You can see if you qualify for the study here: https://maastrichtuniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0iebb5U0mmk3mBM?Q_CHL=qr


 

Join our study on water exposure, stress, and sleep

Download our flyer.

We are investigating how repeated water exposure affects psychological and physiological functioning.

We are looking for healthy volunteers aged 16 and older who are proficient in English and do not have a history of psychiatric, neurological, cardiovascular, or chronic physical illness.

Participation includes:

  • 2 lab visits with questionnaires and saliva samples
  • 1 stress task involving speaking in front of people
  • 20 days of brief shower-based water exposure at home
  • Wearing a sleep watch at night for 20 days
  • A short follow-up questionnaire 1 month later

Total time commitment: 6.5 hours
Compensation: €49 or 6.5 SONA credits

If you are interested, please contact us for more information: fpn-pim_p156@maastrichtuniversity.nl 

Zou uw kind het leuk vinden om monsterletters te leren in een ​​kindvriendelijk 3T-MRI onderzoek?

Voor ons onderzoek zoeken we kinderen met of zonder dyslexie tussen 8-12 jaar. 

Het onderzoek duurt max 2,5 uur en uw kind krijgt ons Leeswinst onderzoeker diploma en een cadeautje.

Dit onderzoek is onderdeel van een groter project naar betere vroege voorspelling van leesproblemen. 

Interesse in deelname? 📨dyslexie@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Download de flyer hier.

Nieuwe inzichten verkrijgen in de symptomen van het complex regionaal pijnsyndroom door de hersenen in beeld te brengen (FABrIC)

WIJ ZOEKEN: U bent een patiënt met CRPS (unilaterale symptomen aan de hand/pols (links of rechts)) met een leeftijd tussen 18 en 65 jaar en chronische pijn (langer dan 3 maanden) die wilt deelnemen aan onze studie of u bent een kennis van deze patiënt die geen klachten heeft. We zoeken 20 patiënten met CRPS en 20 personen zonder CRPS of pijn. 

Download de flyer hier.

DOEL ONDERZOEK: Met dit onderzoek willen we nieuwe inzichten verkrijgen in de symptomen van het CRPS door uw hersenen in beeld te brengen met behulp van Magnetische Resonantie Beeldvorming (MRI). Deze techniek maakt foto’s van uw hersenen. Tijdens een deel van de MRI hersenscans zullen we trillingen toedienen ter hoogte van uw vingertoppen en (ongevaarlijke) elektrische prikkels toedienen ter hoogte van uw pols. De prikkels ter hoogte van uw pols zullen pijnlijk aanvoelen maar wel te verdragen zijn en u kan de intensiteit zelf bepalen. We zullen meten hoe u deze prikkels ervaart.

In dit onderzoek bekijken we een groep personen die pijn ervaren langer dan 3 maanden en de diagnose CRPS hebben. Deze groep patiënten zullen we vergelijken met een groep gezonde personen die pijnvrij zijn en geen klachten hebben. We onderzoeken hoe symptomen, gevoeligheid voor een reeks aan prikkels (zoals druk, aanraking) en de structuur en functie van uw hersenen met elkaar in verband staan. We zullen ook beoordelen hoe factoren zoals overtuigingen over pijn en emoties uw ervaring van de toegediende prikkels kunnen beïnvloeden.

Met dit onderzoek hopen we de oorzaken van de klachten van personen met CRPS en chronische pijn beter te begrijpen. Met deze kennis willen we de behandeling verbeteren met als doel symptomen te verlichten en kwaliteit van leven van patiënten te verbeteren.

U ONTVANGT: Een waardebon van €42, vergoeding van uw reiskosten en een verslag met de onderzoeksresultaten. Indien u dit wenst kunnen we ook vervoer voorzien en een overnachting in Maastricht bij 2 opeenvolgende testdagen.

WAAROM DEELNEMEN: Met uw deelname helpt u de onderzoekers om meer inzicht te krijgen in de hersen-, psychologische-, sensorische- en pijnmechanismen die betrokken zijn bij CRPS symptomen. Met uw deelname helpt u ook mee in de zoektocht naar een betere behandeling van CRPS omdat we met dit onderzoek meer inzicht zullen verkrijgen in de onderliggende mechanismen van dit syndroom (bv. invloed van het brein).

Interesse in deelnemen? Stuur ons een e-mail: pijn_en_brein-fpn@maastrichtuniversity.nl

How Vivid is your Imagination?

Imagine a juicy apple. Is it red or green? How much detail do you see? How vivid does the image feel? 

We are looking for healthy participants (16 years or older) to participate in a project that investigates our ability to create images like this in our mind. We are interested in the wide range of mental imagery vividness from weak or absent to very strong and vivid - and anything in-between. As a first step, we need to collect a database of people with a wide range of mental imagery vividness to help us get an overview of the variation in our sample.

Filling in the online questionnaire will take you only around 5 minutes.

Download the full flyer here.

Does your memory perform well under pressure?

To investigate how different types of memory perform under pressure, and how hormones influence this, we are looking for student participants.

Who?                     
Healthy (fe)males, 16 - 35 years

Who not?
Individuals with cardio-respiratory disease, pregnancy, >10 cigarettes/week, psychological disorder

Where?
Universiteitssingel 40

Duration?
90 min and is rewarded with 1.5 SONA point or a raffle 1/5 change to win 20euro (cadeaubon.nl voucher)

In this study you will be randomly placed in one of two conditions: a control condition or a condition in which you will do a test with cold water that can cause a feeling of discomfort and can be painful. Both conditions are followed by two different memory tests. Females will fill-in some questions regarding their hormonal cycle.

Interested? Sign-up by sending an email to fpn-mupstudy@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Network for COVID-19 (BRAINN)

UM is part of the twinning project Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Network for COVID-19 (BRAINN), together with the University of Cyprus (Cyprus), King’s College London (UK) and the University of Ghent (Belgium). BRAINN aims to characterize the effects of COVID-19 on brain health and to elevate the standards of assessment, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients with mental health and cognitive problems due to COVID-19. To this purpose, the University of Maastricht is conducting an online study using different cognitive assessment tools adapted in Dutch to explore neuropsychological deficits in people with prolonged COVID-19 (compared to general Dutch population); that is, people who still experience difficulties, despite the end of the disease. The participation is open to all Dutch-speaking population, and it’s the first of its kind in the Netherlands. For more information, please visit 

https://www.ucy.ac.cy/brainn/welcome/ and, if interested in participating, please click here.  

Unlock Your Perceptual Potential!

Ever thought about how our eyes make sense of the world around us? The adventure into perceptual skill learning awaits, and we want YOU to be part of the journey!

👀 What's In Store?

At our cutting-edge Perception Lab, we're running multiple projects simultaneously focused on visual perceptual learning. Whether you're into orientation discrimination, texture segregation, or contrast sensitivity – there's a study for everyone! Visual perceptual learning is like a workout for your brain's visual processing. It's the process through which your brain hones its ability to interpret and make sense of visual information. Picture it as a fascinating journey where your neurons get into shape, enhancing your ability to discriminate subtle differences, segregate textures with finesse, and amplify your contrast sensitivity.

🚀 Why Participate?

  • Flexibility: Choose projects that align with your interests – short term (five days), long term (up to 6 weeks), the choice is yours!
  • Compensation: Earn while you learn! We offer monetary rewards or SONA credits (up to 7 credits) for your time and dedication.
  • Be the Scientist: Contribute to scientific discovery and be at the forefront of interesting research

🔍 How to Join the Fun:

Simply shoot us an email expressing your interest, and we'll guide you through. Send an email to ylka.kolken@maastrichtuniversity.nl and we will figure out what study suits you best!

WOW! Where did the grey square go?

Imagine you would only see objects and surface’s boundaries but nothing in-between. You would not be able to grasp objects. Functional visual perception requires perceiving edges as well as filling-in the surfaces within. How do we fill-in surfaces? 

We are running a behavioural-fMRI study to understand the underlying mechanisms of surface filling-in. 

Your task will be to indicate when the grey square is filled in by the background texture and completely disappears. 

The study consists of at least 3 sessions. The first session is a behavioural session with eye-tracking of ~1h30 maximum in the psychophysics lab to assess your focus, your capacity to continuously fill-in this square. If the behavioural results show enough filling-in, we will continue with two fMRI sessions of ~2h each. 

You can be compensated by 1 SONA points or 7.5e per hour for all of the sessions. 

If you are interested, motivated and able to focus well, please send an email to anna.razafindrahaba@maastrichtuniversity.nl and kenshu.koiso@maastrichtuniversity.nl 

Student Mapping Study

Are you a student at either Maastricht, Leiden or Amsterdam (UvA) Universities? Do you own a smartphone and have a good knowledge of English? Then you might be the right participant for our 4-weeks smartphone study. We are curious to learn more about your daily life, behaviours and emotions

By participating in the study you can get 2 Research credits and up to 60€, or 75€ in VVV vouchers as compensation. Do you want to join? 

Click here.

Application form Muhlenberg Spring 2021

Blogs are an excellent way to engage with members of society as well as with members of the research community. They allow you to highlight aspects of your research in conversational language, to pose questions to your readers and to get immediate feedback. You can also discuss your research before it is published in a journal and invite comments on new ideas.

What can you write about?

When it comes to finding topics for your blog, think about the things that you find interesting.

Consider writing about:

  • your research output or preliminary conclusions
  • how your research links to current issues or events
  • a response to a recent court ruling
  • a reaction to someone else’s research (be sure to tag them)
  • a book review
  • an upcoming event or event you recently attended
  • a response to someone else’s blog post (include a link to their post)
law how to engage with society

Your interest and enthusiasm for the topic will come across in the text and will be engaging for readers.

Try it out: Write a post for Law Blogs Maastricht

You can try out blogging by writing a post for Law Blogs Maastricht. This will give you a good idea of what blogging is like in a forum that already has an active readership. Read the  guidelines for writing LBM blogs and send us an email at law-blogs@maastrichtuniversity.nl  to let us know what you are interested in writing about.

 

Five blog examples

Here are some blog posts from your colleagues at the Faculty of Law to give you an idea of how to write a blog post and what you can write about:

  1. Quarantine exception insufficient for border region
  2. The importance of academic collaboration with China
  3. Defoe, Covid-19, and resilience of law and society
  4. Shattered: Theresa May’s early election gamble backfires
  5. When historic injustice meets Tort Law: the case of the Srebrenica genocide
lbm_law_blogs_header_promotie

 See our additional guide
on writing blogs for LBM  

How to increase the visibility of your blog posts

  • Promote your posts on social media and include social media sharing buttons on your post so readers can share your posts on their accounts.
     
  • If your blog post is relevant for other pages on the UM website, such as the UM or faculty homepage or the faculty journal, contact the FL research communications advisor at frie.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl 
     
  • Consider doing a guest post on someone else’s blog to encourage curious readers to read your own blog.
     
  • Use keywords in your blog title and introductory paragraph so people who are searching for content on the same subject matter using search engines can find your blog post. 
Law_how to improve your visibility_blog guide

 See our social media guide

Prefer making videos to writing posts? Consider a vlog

Some people feel more confident talking about their research in a video than they do writing about it in a blog post.

And some internet users will sooner watch a short video than read a lengthy text. Video blogs, called vlogs, are a great way to connect with an audience and get your message across.

 If you’re interested read the guide on how to use videos to promote your research.

how to use video for your research cell phone by using your cell phone

Sources for this guide

 Please contact f.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl for questions regarding support at the UM Faculty of Law.

Around half of the global population is on social media. As a researcher, you can boost the impact of your research by engaging with people where they are and joining the conversation.

Social media platforms

There are many social media platforms that you can use, but look first at where your primary target groups are and how you want to interact with them. If you are new to social media, we recommend starting with LinkedIn, as this platform has a professional focus for most users and it has shown to boost the impact of researchers at the Faculty of Law. This guide is focused on this platform but also contains tips that are relevant for getting started on other social media platforms.

 LinkedIn
 Facebook
 YouTube
 Instagram

Some social media platforms are specifically geared towards connecting with other researchers and students, including:

 ResearchGate
 Google Scholar
 Mendeley
 Academia.edu
 Loop

How to get started on social media

No matter what social media platform you choose (we recommend starting with LinkedIn), you can take the following steps to get started.

1. Prepare your profile and plan your approach

  • It is almost always best to use your own name. People can trust you more if they know who you are and they can easily find your research if they know your name.
  • Use an identifiable and engaging photo of yourself for your profile so people can immediately recognise your posts on their feed.
  • Use your profile to tell people about your research, your work experience, what you teach, and what your interests are. You can usually add links to your own webpage or publications.
  • Make sure that you keep your profile up to date with regards to your employment history, qualifications and awards.

Consider carefully what you would like to achieve through social media and what is realistic for you time-wise.

2. Build your network and curate your newsfeed

  • Start by following (or ‘connecting with’ or ‘friending’, depending on the lingo used on the platform) people who you already have a relationship with, such as family, friends and colleagues in your academic circles.
  • Next, think about who your target audience is. If you followed the steps in the quick start guide and created a list of people and organisations in your ideal network, start going down that list and connecting with their social media accounts.
  • If you have not gone through the steps in the quick start guide, consider what kinds of audiences do you want to reach with your communication. Then, identify the specific people and organisations in those groups that you want to reach. Go down the list and start following them.
  • Next, follow people and organisations that you are interested in and want to see in your news feed. One way to do this is to look at who your colleagues are following, reposting or interacting with, and follow those you find appealing.
  • You can also follow professional societies and conference organisers to find out about events you might otherwise miss.
  • Following people or organisations also makes it more likely that they will follow you and help you grow your own audience.
  • Engage with others by commenting on and sharing their posts. This will help to solidify and expand your network, making it more likely for others to notice you and follow you, as well as to comment on and share your posts.
  • If you are looking for someone to collaborate with in a certain area, it can be helpful to post about it and ask for suggestions. You never know who your audience is connected with.

3. Create your posts

  • Focus on content and providing value in your posts. 

     


    You can post about subjects such as:

  1. your research results or preliminary conclusions
  2. how your research relates to current issues
  3. a reaction to someone else’s research (be sure to tag them)
  4. a book or article recommendation
  5. an upcoming event or conference, or a summary of a recent event
  6. a response to someone else’s research or post
  7. a plea to policymakers to make a certain change
  8. funding opportunities
  9. resources for a class you are teaching
  10. a video of a presentation you have given
  • Keep your posts short and put the most important information first. People often have short attention spans when they’re scrolling through their news feeds, so try to grab that attention immediately.
  • If you have a new publication, you don’t have to describe all of your research at once. You can break it into a few of the most interesting and impactful aspects and post about one or two aspects at a time over several days or weeks. Dividing it into multiple posts will help to make it visible to the largest number of people and to those who are not on social media frequently.
  • Add images, such as photos or infographics, or videos to your posts to dramatically increase impact and engagement.
  • Be yourself and show your human side, including your enthusiasm, joy, fear, disappointment—feelings that people can relate to.
  • Think about ways to use social media throughout your research process, not just to promote your results. 
law_social_media_guide_-_create_a_post

To use social media during your research process you can:

 ask about who might have expertise in a specific area so you can start a collaboration,
 poll your followers to see what type of follow-up research people are most interested in,
 ask others for ideas about how to solve problems you run into,
 request links to the best article about a topic that is not in your field of expertise,
 get feedback on new ideas.

4. Cross-link to drive traffic to your other platforms

  • Put links to your social media profiles on your blog, website or personal profile page at UM so people can connect with you.
  • When you have a new blog post or publication, post about it on social media along with links to make them discoverable for a wider audience.
  • Some publishers will also work with you to increase your impact, so be sure to ask them what options are available.
  • Add links to your blog and website on your social media profiles.
  • Add links to your social media platforms in your email signature and business card.

5. Start adding visuals to boost the impact of your posts

Using visuals, such as infographics, photos and videos, on social media is one of the most effective ways to help users to understand your message better, to interact with you more and to be more likely to share your content. Here are some statistics from Social Media Today:

  • People remember visual information 6x better than the information they read or hear.
  • Adding images to your content increases understanding from 70% to 95%.
  • Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media.
  • Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without images.
  • Posts with infographics generate 12% more traffic and 200% more shares.
  • Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks and 150% more retweets than tweets without images.
  • Facebook posts with images get over 3.2 x more engagement than those without images.
  • LinkedIn posts with images generate a 98% higher comment rate.
  • Video posts generate 270% more clicks and 80% more conversion.

You can start by adding photos of yourself or images of the subjects in your research.

law_social_media_guide_video_meeting

 See the video guide for more information on how to create videos.

Make sure your published articles are shareable

Social media boosts the impact of your research by helping it to be seen by a wider audience. If your published articles are open access, they can be shared directly on social media. However, if they are behind a paywall, you can work with the University Library at Maastricht University to see if it is possible to publish a freely accessible author’s final version (AAM) or a summary. They will also take care of the correct license for access and reuse, in some cases after an embargo period.

If you have a blog, you may also be able to summarise your article or different aspects of it in a blog post, depending on the conditions set by your publisher. That way, if your full article is not shareable on social media, you can link to more information on your blog. Writing blog posts about your research is also a good way to explain your research in everyday language to a wider audience.

This means that sometimes you are more likely to reach a non-academic audience if you share your blog posts on social media than if you share your articles directly. You can then link to your published article in the blog posts if people want to read further.

law_social_media_guide_sharable_content

 See our guide on how to use blogs for more information.

Skill endorsements
Once you add a skill to your profile, your connections can publicly endorse those skills. You can ask your colleagues to endorse you or you can start endorsing your colleagues, which might prompt them to return the favour.

Articles
On LinkedIn, you can publish articles about your expertise or areas of interest. Your articles are shared on your profile as well as in the news feeds of your connections and followers. Articles are a good way to expand your professional network.

They can also be shared on other platforms. If your profile is set for ‘everyone’ to be able to see it, then your articles will be searchable both on and off LinkedIn.

law_social_media_guide_networking

Remember to include not only your position, but also your area of expertise in your headline so people can find you.

Run some experiments and see what boosts your impact the most

To get a general idea of how your social media posts increase your research impact, you can run some experiments to see how they affect your article views and downloads, which most publishers will give you access to.

Pick a platform and post about your research to see how many article views and downloads you get after a few days. You can try out different social media platforms as well as different types of posts. Add photos, infographics or videos and see what makes a difference. Talk about the social impact of your research, the personal impact it has had on you or ask questions to try and prompt a discussion. See which approach increases your views the most.

This is not a scientific approach, as your number of article views is only a small measure of your impact and some posts can continue to increase your views after more than a few days, depending on who shares them and when.

But it should give you an idea about which platforms and approaches are immediately effective at increasing your article views.

Please contact maxime.paulis@maastrichtuniversity.nl for questions
regarding support at the UM Faculty of Law

 

Videos are a great way to show your enthusiasm for your topic and to engage with your audience in a more personal way. You can directly explain and illustrate concepts from your research and incorporate interviews or news clips to demonstrate the social impact of your research.

Highlighting the social impact of your research

 

  • Are you researching the legal barriers faced by cross-border workers?
    You can record one or two cross-border workers explaining to your audience how these problems affect them personally. That can help the audience to connect with the issue in an emotional way.
     
  • Researching the rights of victims of war crimes?
    You can incorporate video clips or images from the press in the video so the audience can see how people have been affected by the war.
     
  • Researching a new law that affects university students?
    Get some students to collaborate with you on the video and ask them for their ideas about how to best explain how this law and your research impacts them personally. The possibilities are endless.
law_guide_video_highlighting_the_social_impact_of_your_research

Videos open up creative ways to show your audience that your research impacts (or has the potential to impact) real people in real ways.

Some examples of our law research and event videos

Dilek Kurban online book launch and discussion

webinar event
law_dilek_kurban_slides_book_launch_event

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How to plan and create a video step by step: 

 

1. Identify your primary communication goal(s)

It is important to identify what you want to communicate and why before you start creating your video. You may have multiple communication goals, so write them down in order and make sure that your video supports your goals. Some possible goals are:

  • to create an engaging abstract of your research to publish with your article
  • to illustrate an interesting aspect of your research for a wide audience
  • to review a book or article
  • to demonstrate the social impact of your research
  • to comment on a court ruling
  • to tie your research to an issue that is currently in the media
  • to persuade policymakers or voters to take a particular action
  • to elaborate on concepts that you write about in a blog post or article
  • to generate interest in a book or article you have published​​​​
law_how_to_use_video_for_your_research_steps

By following these simple steps, you can plan and create a video that meets your communication goals and effectively boosts the impact of your research.

2. Identify your primary target group(s)

Who do you most want to reach with your message?

  • the general public
  • academics in or outside your field
  • students

 

  • policymakers/politicians
  • lawyers
  • prosecutors
  • judges

3. Define your message

Defining your message simply means deciding what you want to say to your target group to meet your communication goals. This can be a simple outline of the most important information, or talking points, that you want to include in your video.

Keep your target group in mind and what they will likely find to be the most interesting and relevant aspects of your research. And try to get feedback on this. If your target group is students, for instance, ask a couple of students what they think about your talking points and if there is anything else they think you should include.

law_writing blogs guideline

4. Decide where you want to publish and promote the video

Consider the channels that are most used by your target group and list all of the channels that you want to use to promote your video. The channels you use could impact the format and length of your video, for instance.

These channels could include:

5. Select a storytelling format

Choose the best format for how to tell your story, keeping in mind your primary communication goals, target group, visual materials, budget and time.

There are many options for formats, some of which are:  

  • Question-and-answer format: You can answer questions from an interviewer who is on-camera or off-camera. The questions from the interviewer can be included in the final video or edited out. Another option is to have the questions written on the screen before you give your answer. 
     
  • Scripted or unscripted speech: This is just you describing your research while talking into the camera. You can write a full script and memorise it or just write an outline and memorise a few talking points.
     
  • Inspirational presentation: You can create informational slides that you use to guide your audience through an informative and inspirational speech. Popular examples of this are TED Talks and Pecha Kucha presentations.   
  • Narrated or movie trailer format: If you have a major breakthrough in your research, a story that relates to current debates in the media or politics, or a story that impacts society in a big way, you can approach the university’s press office or video team to see if there is time and budget available to help you make a video with higher production values that is narrated or in the style of a movie trailer.  
     
  • Mini educational lecture: You can give an instructional lecture with a structure similar to a Zoom lecture with visual aids on a split screen or to a traditional lecture in front of a classroom.

6. Decide on a budget

You don’t need a big budget (or any budget) to make a video these days. But if you want a video with a higher production value, custom animations or images, assistance with filming and editing, a translation for captions, etc., you will need funding.

 Talk to your manager to decide what your budget should be based on your needs.

7. Decide who will film, edit and upload the video

Based on your storytelling format and budget, you can decide if you will be filming, editing and uploading the video yourself, enlisting the help of a colleague or students, or hiring someone else (including the UM Student Video Team).

 If you decide to film the video yourself using a smartphone, you can borrow additional filmmaking equipment from the University Library, including a mini-tripod/selfie stick, external microphone (to reduce noise interference) and a light.

 If you decide to hire someone else, you can find more information about hiring the UM Student Video Team or one of the university’s preferred suppliers on the UM webpage for employees about videos. This page also provides you with information about subtitles and uploading the video to the UM channels.

8. Select a technical format

Usually, the channels that you want to use to distribute the video will publish information about the technical specifications your video needs to adhere to in order to be uploaded to their site. You will most likely be able to preview your video before it is published in case there are any technical incompatibilities.

Depending on the distribution channels you have selected, shooting your video in landscape (horizontal) format is usually most appropriate, followed by a square format.

 You should shoot the video in the highest resolution you can and then you can reduce the correct resolution when you edit the video for each channel.

9. Select a location

When choosing a location for your video shoot, consider the following:

  • choose attractive background that is not too busy and does not distract from your message
     
  • decide beforehand if you need visual aids and if you can bring those to the location
     
  • choose a location that has very little noise interference (you may have to use a professional microphone for public places)
     
  • choose a location where there is little potential for interruptions from other people
Law_video guide_select a location

10. Write your script or outline

If you are using a storytelling format that includes scripted speech or narration, for instance, you will need to write out a script for these parts of the video.

For most of the other formats, you can write a general outline that will give you a structure to follow when you shoot the video. If you are hiring a production company, they will likely take care of this step.

 Just make sure that they fully understand your communication goals, target audience and message before they start working on it.

guideline videos - write your video script

11. Shoot your video

Have fun! And if you start to feel nervous or unnatural in front of the camera, you can always stop, take a deep breath or do some quick exercises to help get the tension out of your body. You can also consider placing a friend behind the camera so you are talking to a person instead of a piece of equipment.

 Do whatever you need to do to feel like yourself and be engaging for the audience.

12. Edit your video

You can edit your video yourself or ask the UM video team to arrange this for you.

13. Upload your video

Using your list of distribution channels, start uploading! Include an attractive title that tells potential viewers what your video is about. Depending on the channel, you may also have room to include a short description of the video in addition to the title. Use that space to include a teaser that includes the most interesting aspect(s) of your research video.

 To upload the video to the Faculty of Law webpages or channels, please contact f.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl

We are here to help!
There are a lot of things to consider when creating a video, so please remember that the research communication advisor at the Faculty of Law is here to support you. The communication advisor can help you come up with a plan for your video and help you with any questions you have. All you have to do is send an email to f.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl to set up a meeting.

law_how to use video for your research display on youtube

 If you want to upload your video to the central pages on the UM website, you can follow the instructions on the UM video webpage.

5 Tips for an engaging video

1. Frontload the most interesting information: Put the most interesting information at the beginning of a video since not all audience members will watch until the end of the video. Try to get them hooked within the first 30 seconds.

2. Be brief: Video viewers are not a captive audience and will likely stop watching if it takes too long to get the information they are looking for or if they stop being interested. Try to keep the video around 5 minutes or less.

3. Be yourself: Talk into the camera as if you were talking to a friend, colleague or student, depending on who your target audience is. You can always have someone stand behind the camera who you can talk to if this feels more natural to you.

 

4. Tell a story that relates your research to the audience: Explain how your research relates to your audience. Use examples, anecdotes, personal stories, analogies and statistics that your audience can relate to.

5. Try out your script or outline before you shoot: You can use the voice recorder on your phone or computer to run through your script or talking points a few times before you shoot. This will allow you to focus on what you want to say and how you want to say it before you start considering physical aspects such as your body language and facial expressions.

Tips for recording a video yourself using your phone or laptop

Whether you are using your phone or laptop, you can record a high-quality video using the tips below

  • Orientation: For most platforms, you should use landscape (horizontal) orientation or square, not portrait.
  • Lighting: try to find a location where there is plenty of light and make sure you are directly facing the source of the light.
  • Sound: Make sure your location has minimal background noise. If you have multiple locations in mind, test the sound at each location before choosing the best spot.
  • Angle: The best angle to use when you are talking into the camera is for the camera to be about eye level when you are looking straight ahead. 
  • Shoot activities and visual aids from different angles: If you are filming others engaged in an activity to illustrate an aspect of your research, film it from several different angles; shoot close-ups and full-body shots so you have a variety to choose from when you edit the video.
  • Shoot extra footage: Shoot everything in your video multiple times. You may see mistakes later when you sit down to edit the video, and it is better to have backup footage than to have to re-shoot footage again.
how to use video for your research cell phone by using your cell phone
  • Shoot extra footage: Shoot everything in your video multiple times. You may see mistakes later when you sit down to edit the video, and it is better to have backup footage than to have to re-shoot footage again.

Tips for video abstracts

For a video abstract that will be published with your journal article or will be used to describe and point to your published article, try to include the following information:

  • What problem or gap in existing knowledge does your research address (problem statement) and why is that important?
  • What is the primary conclusion of your research and how does it address the problem statement?
  • How is it relevant to society/the audience?
  • How does the research advance your field?
  • What are the opportunities for further research on this topic?
Law_video abstract for guideline videos

Structure your message

 Don’t forget, the University Library has equipment you can borrow to shoot your own video!

How to promote your video

Once your video is published, you can attract viewers by promoting it on a variety of communication channels:

 Social media: Use our social media guide to help you promote your video on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

  Research platforms: There are a number of platforms, such as We Share Science, you can use to share your research video with others who are interested in research. These are also great places to get inspiration from the videos posted by other academics.

 Your personal website: If you have your own website, you can publish your video on the most appropriate pages (homepage, publications, research).

 Your blog: Use our guide on blogs to help you promote the video on your blog. When you post the video on your blog, you should also link to your publication and consider adding a transcript of your video if you have one.

 The Maastricht University website or YouTube channel: Is your video relevant for certain research institutes, the general UM research page, the UM intranet or even the homepage? If you want to add your video on the central pages on the UM website, you can follow the instructions on the UM video webpage. To upload the video to the Faculty of Law webpages or channels, please contact f.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl

law_social_media_guide_sharable_content

 Academic journal: If your video is a research abstract of a publication in a journal or if it illustrates part of your research, you can inquire with the journal if you can add your video next to the abstract for your paper.
 

 Personal profile pages: If you have a personal profile page, you can publish a link to your video here.

Additional resources for UM employees

Check out UM’s webpage for employees about videos. This page gives you a good overview of your options regarding video production. These options include working with the Student Video Team or a number of preferred suppliers that have been selected by the university for the quality of their work. It also contains information about adding subtitles to your videos and guidelines for submitting your video for placement on the UM video channels and YouTube, as well as uploading to the Video Management System that provides you with analytics oversight.

Sources for this guide

 Please contact f.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl for
questions regarding support at the UM Faculty of Law

Having your research featured in the mass media can raise awareness among a large audience.
The focus here is on what your research means or could mean for society.

What makes your research newsworthy?

Before you approach the press office, consider how the press will determine if your research is newsworthy enough for publication. This will help you determine how to pitch your research to the press officers. Ask yourself if it falls under any of the following categories:

  • A major breakthrough in your field: Does your research contribute to a significant development in your field?
     
  • Meaningful impact on society: Does your research affect a large number of people in their everyday lives?
     
  • Related to current events: Does your research relate to current events in a meaningful way?
     
  • Relevant to the readers of a publication: Does your research specifically affect the readers of a certain publication? Note which publication(s) when you talk to the press officer.
     
  • Recommendation for social change: Does your research provide evidence to support a different approach to current or social issues that could appeal to policymakers and voters?
     
  • Trending on social media: Does your research relate to a topic that is currently trending on social media?
law_social_media_guide_newsworthy

There are, of course, exceptions to what can be considered newsworthy and the press officers can help you determine this.

 

Providing information for a press release

The press officer will most likely write the press release, but you need to provide the officer with the most relevant information for journalists. Consider what the most newsworthy aspects of your research are and explain them clearly, with supporting facts, to the press officer. Be brief, direct, accurate and informative. And remember to include ‘who, what, when, where, why, and how’.

Even if the press officer crafts a perfect press release, it is not a guarantee that your story will be picked up by the media. It is ultimately up to the journalists or editors whether they want to publish your story and many factors go into their decisions.

What to do when the press comes to you

You also might be contacted by a member of the press directly if they need an expert comment for a story they are working on. This request could come directly from the journalist or via the university’s press office.

If a journalist contacts you directly and you do not feel prepared to comment immediately, especially if they are asking about a controversial issue, you are free to get their number to call them back after you have taken some time to gather your thoughts or consult with a press officer.

But call them back as soon as possible and agree with them on a time to call back or they could move on to another expert. They are almost always working against very tight deadlines.

How to minimise the risk of being misunderstood or misquoted

Be thoughtful about how you word things so that a journalist cannot easily misunderstand you or take something that you say out of context. You can minimise this risk by first discussing your story with the journalist informally so that you each have the chance to make sure there is a mutual understanding of the facts and the tone of the news story. Assume that anything you say in this ‘pre-interview’ is on the record and can be published by the reporter.

If the journalist is not known to you or is not part of a reputable news organisation, it is wise to check out their previous work or their news organisation’s work before agreeing to an interview and decide if you will have a fair chance of presenting your message as you intend it. The press officers can also help you determine this, but it is good for you to have a feel for your conversation partner. You can request to have a press officer present with you in your meeting if the interviewer has a reputation for being controversial. If you are not comfortable with the situation, then it might be best to decline doing an interview or providing a quote.

Most journalists will make every effort to make sure that they understand what you intend to say and will represent it fairly. Usually, you will not be given the chance to comment on the final article or news story, but let the journalist know that you are happy to be contacted for additional information or clarification. If you realise after the interview that you have misrepresented a fact, call the journalist immediately to offer a correction. It is difficult to get a retraction once a story is published.

How to prepare for a live interview

When you are preparing for a live interview, for instance, on television, radio, podcast or online streaming, discuss the content with the journalist, producer or presenter beforehand to:

  • establish what is expected of you during the interview
  • get more information about the content or goal of the interview
  • determine how much time will be allotted for the interview
  • review with them interesting facts about your research that pertain to the interview

Practice what you are going to say, but not so much that your answers sound rehearsed. Make a mental note of what you do and do not want to say on air. Identify a few talking points without creating a full script. You can also practise answering potential interview questions with a colleague, friend or press officer.

9 Tips for media​​ interviews

1. Get support from the press office: The UM press office should be one of your first point of contact when it comes to dealing with the press. You are the expert on your research, but they are experts in communicating with the media.

2. Identify your talking points beforehand: Prior to the interview, identify 3 to 4 points you want to convey and support these points with interesting examples, anecdotes or analogies.

3. Conduct mock interviews: Practise answering questions with your colleagues, family and friends. If you are preparing for a television or livestream interview, have someone record it so you can evaluate your body language.

4. Make sure you understand the question: Listen carefully to the question and ask for clarification if necessary.

5. Use everyday language: Avoid scientific terminology if possible. If you must use a term that is likely not familiar to the audience, offer a simple explanation or analogy.

6. Keep your answers brief and direct: Get directly to the point and reference a talking point whenever possible because you may not get another opportunity.

7. Cite facts and statistics: Use verifiable facts and figures to add authority and interest to your talking points.

8. Deflect questions you want to avoid: You can respond to a narrow question with a broad answer that leads into one of your talking points.

9. Correct mistakes: If you misspeak, speak up as soon as you realise it (even if that is while you are speaking about something else) and correct your response immediately because you may not get a chance to later. If the interviewer presents incorrect information, politely set the record straight by providing the correct information.

 Sources for this guide

 Please contact f.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl for
questions regarding support at the UM Faculty of Law

 

In order to have a real impact on society as a researcher, you have to actually engage with members of society. Engagement is about two-way communication. The aim is to enhance the quality and impact of your research as well as to inform and involve the public. Engaging in dialogue with the wider public fosters their understanding and trust. It also helps you better understand the needs of diverse members of society. This can inform your research in a way that can help you meet those needs.

Why should you engage with society?

Social engagement benefits both you as a researcher and society in many ways, including the following:

  • Increases relevance of research. Engagement helps you as a researcher to better understand the needs of society and to formulate your research questions in a way that best meets those needs.
     
  • Enhances accountability. Since research is largely publicly funded, scholars have an obligation to the public to share their research and to discuss its potential to benefit society.  
     
  • Improves understanding and facilitates application of results. Discussing your research with the public also helps the public to better understand the potential applications of your research. This increases the likelihood that members of the public will develop evidence-based initiatives that benefit society as a whole.
     
  • Leads to innovation. Talking about you research with people outside academia often leads to the generation of new ideas and fresh perspectives.



 

  • Increases potential for policy changes. When the wider public is discussing your research, and especially when researchers and the public work together, it is more likely that policymakers will take notice and use your work to make legislative changes that have a positive impact on society.
     
  • Expands access to funding. The majority of large research grants now require information about ‘pathways to impact’, which includes initiatives that facilitate societal and economic impacts of the research.

How to engage with society

 

1. Identify your ‘why’ for engagement

You may have multiple purposes, so identify all of them and make sure that your engagement activities support your goals.

Some common goals that researchers have are:

  • to inform the public about your research
  • to team up with members of the public to apply your results
  • to get feedback from the public about your research goals or process

 

Engaging through social media
Social media platforms are full of people who are happy to share their opinions. This makes it an excellent way to engage with members of society. For instance, you can create polls, crowdsource ideas for research questions or potential collaboration partners, and discuss how your results can be applied in ways that benefit society.

See more in our guide on how to use social media to boost the impact of your research. 

2. Define your ‘who’

Which demographic would you like to reach? Consider age, gender, profession, location.

3. Determine your ‘how’


Some possibilities of engagement activities:

  • public presentations, lectures and debates (Pecha Kucha, TED talk, Studium Generale)
  • online engagement (websites, forums, social media)
  • crowdsourcing
  • workshops (for students or professionals)
  • focus groups
  • online consultations
  • opinion polls or surveys
Law_guide 5 how to engage with society_who and how

What type of engagement activities are most appropriate for your goals and your target group?

4. Explore possibilities for collaboration

Is there a social organisation you can team up with to reach your target group? Is there another researcher or group you can collaborate with that may have similar goals?

5. Get ideas and feedback from other researchers

What are some ways that your colleagues have engaged with the public? If you already have an idea of an activity, what do your colleagues or members of the public think about it? Who can you ask about the best ways to engage with your target audience?

6. Execute your engagement activity

Once the planning is done, it is time to get started. If your engagement involves an event, don’t forget to ask the participants for feedback. You can use this to optimise your next event.

law_social_media_guide_video_meeting

Share ideas and get feedback from other researchers

UM resources for engagement

  • Conducting research related to the EU? Join up with Campus Brussels for community-engaged research. Contact your colleagues at UM Campus Brussels to discuss their facilities and services for researchers interested in carrying out education and research activities and engaging with the broader community in Brussels. More about partnering with the campus.
     
  • Have an idea for community-engaged research? Consider if crowdfunding is appropriate for your project with the help of UM Crowd. Crowdfunding involves the funding of a project through (often small) amounts from a large group of people. It is not only about funding, but also creating (long-term) involvement and engagement with your supporters and the community you want to serve with your research.

    For an example, see the campaign page for research to improve the lives of transgender people by exploring the associations between the brain, self-concept, and (sexual) well-being of transgender participants throughout their transition using an MRI scanner.

MPCER is for UM researchers from various disciplines who are looking to have a positive impact on society by engaging the community in their research and to collaborate with researchers who have the same ambition.

How to apply Open Science principles

Maastricht University has an Open Science policy and offers you support in putting these principles into practice.

The following steps for applying Open Science principles include links to the opportunities for support:

1. Follow the Research Data Management Guide

The Research Data Management Guide from the University Library, which explains how to manage your data in each step of the research process in a way that protects it while you are conducting your study and makes it possible for it to be openly accessible after publication (possibly after an embargo period). As part of this, you are asked to submit all Author Accepted Manuscripts of peer-reviewed articles to the institutional repository.


Submitting your research in Pure ensures that your research can be found in all the major indexes and search engines, making your research accessible to everyone in the world, in some cases after an embargo period.

Open Science at Maastricht University

Maastricht University has an Open Science policy and offers you support in putting these principles into practice.

2. Adhere to FAIR data use principles

Meaning that whenever possible, your research data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The University Library takes care of the workflows and the legal formalities to make your research FAIR by:

  • adding the correct metadata to make your research findable
     
  • adding the submitted publication to the Institutional Repository of Maastricht University (Pure) to make your research accessible
     
  • checking submitted research to make the output interoperable
     
  • taking care of embargo periods and copyright notices to make your research as reusable as possible.

3. Commit to Gold Open Access publishing:

UM has OA publishing deals in place to enable you as a researcher to publish Open Access without paying Article Processing Charges (APC). Find out more about Open Access resources available through the University Library.

Sources for this guide

 Please contact f.hoekstra@maastrichtuniversity.nl for questions
regarding support at the UM Faculty of Law

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