Crafting a Scholarly Narrative: Innovative Ways to Demonstrate Scholarly and Societal Impact

Abstract

In this session, Dr. Bruce Herbert, Director of the Office of Scholarly Communications at Texas A&M University, will offer compelling evidence-based advice for building rich narratives of the significance and impact of your work. Whether applying for tenure/promotion, seeking funding, or establishing your credibility with readers who may dismiss or misunderstand social science, your personal narrative is your opportunity to make your case. This workshop will help you create a more powerful one. Fundamental to Dr. Herbert's approach is the need to achieve true impact with our scholarship and creative work, and then being able to demonstrate that impact. Among the topics he will discuss are utilizing emerging research practices, transformative and translational research, open access publishing, multidisciplinary collaborations, thinking beyond the h-index to alternative metrics, and overcoming the problem of working in a field without many "impact factor" journals. This workshop promises to leave you with strategies for powerfully making your case. But perhaps more importantly, it will leave you thinking about how to better approach your work to achieve long-term and widespread impact.