Introduction
Research is a process that can be difficult to navigate. It’s easy to get stuck in your own head, and it can be hard to know when it’s time to share your work with others.
In this guide, we’ll outline the benefits of sharing research with scientists, so you can make sure that you’re getting the most out of your hard work.
Improved Visibility and Reputation
You’ll get more opportunities to collaborate, publish, apply for funding and so on.
Your work will be seen by many more people than you would have reached through your own efforts alone. This will give you a better chance of finding collaborators with similar interests and also of attracting funding applications.
Faster and Better Research
Sharing your research work with scientists can help you get feedback on your work.
It’s very easy to get lost in the details of the day-to-day process of doing science: from collecting data and writing grant proposals to running experiments and analyzing results. There are so many tiny steps that need to be done that it can feel like you never have time to step back and look at what you’re actually doing as a whole.
This is where sharing your work with other researchers can be really helpful. Asking others for their opinions on what you’re doing makes it much easier for them to give helpful feedback on whether something needs improving or changing. It also means that if someone does see something wrong with what they think might be an issue, they may be able to suggest ways around those problems instead of just telling someone “this isn’t working right now.”
Scientists, working together, can accelerate progress towards solving important problems in science. Not only does collaboration make it possible for multiple teams to work independently on similar projects, but it also ensures that no one wastes time reinventing wheels before moving forward towards achieving their goal faster than otherwise possible.
More Opportunities to Impact Policy and Practice
Sharing research with scientists can help you to be more visible and impactful.
If your work has the potential to make a difference in the world, sharing it with scientists will give you more opportunities to get your ideas noticed. If other people think that your research is valuable, they may want to use it or even make improvements on it. By sharing your work with others, you’re creating an opportunity for people who are interested in what you’re doing—even if they aren’t exactly sure what they should do next!
Greater Potential for Collaboration
As you publish your research, you will have more opportunities to work with other scientists. You may find that the study of one topic leads naturally into another, or that a different perspective can provide insight into your own work. And as long as you’re willing to travel outside your immediate area or institution, there are plenty of ways for collaboration to occur:
- Scientists working in different fields can also collaborate on projects. If a biologist is interested in how birds use tools and has access to some funding from an organization like the National Science Foundation (NSF), she could hire an ethologist who studies animal behavior to help her with her project. The biologists might discover important information about tool use for both fields!
- Scientists working in different countries can also collaborate on projects—and this has revolutionized how we think about science! For example, the NSF supports many international research collaborations between scientists from around the world who want their research findings published together without having to wait until those researchers’ home institutions allow them access again (usually because they’ve already published).
Researchers are no longer facing the pressure of having to get permission from their institutions before publishing their results; instead, they can now just post something publicly available online and anyone anywhere else will be able to see it immediately after posting.
Sharing Research With Scientists Will Make You a Better Researcher
Sharing research work with scientists can give you a more positive and productive experience as a researcher. When you share your research work with scientists, it can help develop your skills in different ways. For example, when sharing your work with other researchers, it can help you improve upon the methods that you use or expand on what is already known about the topic of study. You may also learn about other methods and approaches to conducting research in order to broaden your knowledge base, which will make you better able to conduct future experiments efficiently.
Sharing research papers with other researchers and experts on an ongoing basis gives you the chance to network with people in your field. This may lead to collaboration on projects without having met in person beforehand.
Conclusion
From this, it is clear that the benefits of sharing research work with scientists outweigh the downsides. Not only will it make you feel more positive and productive as a researcher, but also, you’ll have better opportunities to impact policy and practice. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start sharing your work!