17 tips for promoting your article

Congratulations on the publication of your article. At OUP, we ensure that your article is highly discoverable and can be found by the people who need to read it.

We also encourage you to be involved in promoting your article. As the author, you can make a real difference by raising the profile of your research and talking to your peers, the public, and other potential readers. What you do may depend on your research, your field, and how much time you have, but we encourage you to think about how you can support the promotion of your work.

If you are interested in improving the visibility of your work more actively, take a look at our recommendations below.

Top tips

If you have less than an hour: use your existing networks – online and in real life.

  1. Use your toll-free link to share your article with your colleagues and friends. Your toll-free link will be sent directly to you by email once your article has published. It provides permanent, free access to your article, even if your article is updated. Open Access articles are always freely available to all readers.
  2. Add the toll-free link to your email signature for colleagues and friends.
  3. Update your professional and/or institutional websites with information about your article and the toll-free link.
  4. Include information about your article in relevant seminars or conference presentations.
  5. Share news about your article on any social media that you use: Facebook or Twitter for example. You might include a summary in plain English, a video, or a snappy headline. Please note that the toll-free link should not be shared via social media.
  6. Do you use LinkedIn? Share news about your article in your newsfeed, and be sure to add it to the publications section of your profile.
  7. Recommend the journal where your article is published to your institutional or university librarian, if they do not already subscribe.
  8. Sign up for an ORCID author identifier to distinguish yourself from any other researchers with the same name, create an online profile showcasing all your publications, and increase the visibility of your work.

If you want or have time for an ongoing commitment: find a niche and get involved.

  1. Discuss and promote your article at conferences.
  2. Think about which social network would suit you; you may find like-minded people on Twitter, Tumblr, Medium, Reddit, or Instagram, for instance. Every platform has distinct communities and interest-groups; take some time to find what you enjoy. If you’re not sure which platform is right for you, view OUP’s author’s guide to social media.
  3. If you want to use a new platform to talk about your work, you should join and try to build up a following at least several months before publication. Use the opportunity to talk, share ideas, and get involved in the conversations before you begin promoting your article.
  4. Get in touch with leading bloggers in your subject or discipline and offer to write a guest post about your research.
  5. Consider starting your own blog to explore and share your ideas, communicate with a wider audience, and raise your online profile.
  6. If you are interested in wider dissemination among non-specialists, such as policy-makers and the general public, get advice from your institution, faculty, or funding body about public engagement.

If you want to track the impact your research is making: use our free tools to track article-level metrics.

  1. Find out how many people are reading, downloading and citing your article by clicking ‘View Metrics’ on the article page.