I don't know whether there is an impact for students and postdocs, but definitively society does not pay the attention we expect to our "outreach" efforts. In a world where people need to understand science so urgently, one feels very tired at times. I understand your feelings.

Dear Prof. Guillermo-Ferreira!

You spotted a topic with primary importance. As I understand the question in the end is about helping researchers to maximize their societal impact. The fact is that in many countries in the EU, governments have been reducing basic funding available for universities. Higher institutions have to go for private funding:

1) Friesike, S., Dobusch, L. and Heimstädt, M. (2022), "Striving for Societal Impact as an Early-career Researcher: Reflections on Five Common Concerns", Gümüsay, A.A., Marti, E., Trittin-Ulbrich, H. and Wickert, C. (Ed.) Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 79), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 239-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079022, Free access:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079022/full/html

2) Gruber M, Crispeels T, D'Este P. Who Am I? The Influence of Knowledge Networks on PhD Students' Formation of a Researcher Role Identity. Minerva. 2023 Apr 12:1-32. doi: 10.1007/s11024-023-09492-1. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37359298; PMCID: PMC10089826. Free access:

Article Who Am I? The Influence of Knowledge Networks on PhD Student...

3) Joshua J. Fisher, Joanna L. James, Know the game: Insights to help early career researchers successfully navigate academia, Placenta, Volume 125, 2022, Free access: Article Know the game: Insights to help early career researchers suc...

4) John, T., Cordova, K. E., Jackson, C. T., Hernández-Mondragón, A. C., Davids, B. L., Raheja, L., Milić, J. V., Borges, J., Engaging Early-Career Scientists in Global Policy-Making Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202217841. Free access: Article Engaging Early‐Career Scientists in Global Policy‐Making

I think innovative interactive university-industry cooperation platforms are key elements in facilitating researchers to progress in their careers:

Quentin Plantec, Benjamin Cabanes, Pascal le Masson, Benoit Weil, Early-career academic engagement in university-industry collaborative PhDs: Research orientation and project performance, Research Policy, Volume 52, Issue 9, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2023.104856, Free access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048733323001403

Yours sincerely, Bulcsu Szekely

Socializing science and researchers is not easy Rhainer Guillermo-Ferreira

I would summarize the problem with a Hebrew saying: give me a study partner or death ! Although we may live in the information age of science, the education level and the implied values of a population do also count. Videos of painting nails will always attract more visitors than a serious scientific discourse, because we live in the global materialist consumer society. So, if you are doing good research, keep on and search for a few fellows to built a discourse community.

Thank you all for the insightful replies. I'll read these papers with care, Bulcsu.

What about tools for outreach? Is there any evidence that someone was successful in any kind of approach? I'd like to see something that works.

Dear Rhainer Guillermo-Ferreira, in my opinion, the means of mass communication (TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) and social media practically always confuse personal "opinions" of someone with "scientific results". Therefore, for example, the opinions of novaxes had, on mass media and social media, the same relevance as the scientific results that said vaccines saved millions of people from Covid19. Therefore, people who are not in the world of research have been at least "confused" and hesitant about vaccines. Because they were no longer certain of the fact that it was necessary to get vaccinated to safeguard their own health and that of society as a whole. In other words, people are more likely to follow a famous tennis player who refuses to get vaccinated than an obscure researcher or doctor who insists on vaccinating everyone.

There are two types of research- knowledge driven, and problem driven. When we pursue knowledge driven research, we must at least understand who the stakeholders are and keep them posted. What is the applicability of the new knowledge? Research cant be an adventurous endeavor like mountaineering. The second type pursues a solution to the known problem. Here also, the beneficiaries are clear and the researcher should make efforts to actively engage these beneficiaries during and after the research, as it always evolves. The better question every researcher must ask himself is - for what purpose? for who? Because, there are always people who care about our research. We just need to find them and connect with them.

My supervisors seemed genuinely interested in my findings and people at nursing conferences also. And also, people in the area where I worked.

I was (until retiring) a nurse practitioner researching 'Living with faecal incontinence'.

And, judging on the results on RG, members of RG seem interested in my articles!

So, no, this never entered my head.

Sridhar Chakravarthi Mulakaluri as says there are - knowledge driven, and problem driven.

But I guess we all once or twice have had the feeling of who cares and is interested in one's research. I can for myself see differences in reads depending on the topic. There are more readers in general subjects such as ones on e.g. personality tests. Because many have tried or done personality tests. Then articles about research on ADHD for example.

An interesting discussion. I've sometimes not felt entirely fulfilled when doing niche publications or one off presentations because of the lack of follow up thereafter on my part. I think perhaps researchers ought to recycle peer reviewed work and break it down more than they do and take it to children, teachers of STEM, philanthropists or even just local communities to reinvigorate interest in the topic more often than they do. I'm definitely guilty of doing something and then moving on to the next topic. This potentially niche work then sits waiting for someone to use it in a review after which that individual might take this information and relay it to the masses unbeknownst to me.

Its difficult isn't it? Many variables are at play and everyone's circumstances are different. I have come to realize that people should never beat themselves up and try as best as they can to do what they can to educate and help the world with whatever means they have.

An example: My old university have many good people that through hard work have made their way into influential roles and positions there. Because they generally possess good morals and lots of know how of how society should be treating the environment, they have helped the organic evolution of the university to become more sustainable, responsible and a role model for the world in terms being more green. These people are the result of charismatic lecturers, researchers, inspiring individuals and probably their environment that have effectively relayed responsible and informative ideals that have shaped them.

Conclusion: Never underestimate what effect you might be having on others- good and bad.

I would like to add here also the flood of more and more "scientific papers" that makes it difficult for any community to keep track of the real progresses. Hence, valuable research may be just hidden by attention-seeking titled papers that give no added value.

Besides, as others pointed out, it highly depends on the discipline. Coming from Mathematics, I know that even PIs in more abstract mathematical disciplines (category theory, measure theory, probability theory etc.) struggle to have scientific recognition in terms of citations.

I imagine that social sciences suffer even more from this "niche effect".