Dennis Meredith—Explaining Research: How to Reach Key Audiences to Advance Your Work, 2nd Ed.

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Explaining Research

EXPLAINING RESEARCH:
HOW TO REACH KEY AUDIENCES
TO ADVANCE YOUR WORK, Second Edition
Dennis Meredith
Oxford University Press, August 17, 2021, $44.95
ISBN-10: 019757131X, ISBN-13: 978-0197571316

Meredith reports:

I still don’t know everything!

I was reminded of that humbling fact when I began research for the second edition of Explaining Research more than a decade after the first edition. Back when I started research for the first edition, I naively thought I could just write it out of my own experience. But just to see if there was possibly stuff I didn’t know, I decided to interview a cadre of journalists and PIOs. I remember sitting in interviews with them constantly saying, “Gee, I didn’t think of that!”

Dennis Meredith

So for the second edition, I resolved to talk to some leading science journalists and top-flight PIOs whom I hadn’t been able to interview before. As with the folks interviewed for the first edition, they offered great new insights that I think will make the second edition even more useful to researchers and other professionals.

Many of the first edition’s concepts and guidance were still valid, I found as I reviewed its content. Also, the foreword by Nobel Laureate Peter Agre was as current as if it had just been written.

However, many concepts and technologies had evolved since 2010 and called for the new edition’s revision and augmentation. For example, I updated considerably the chapter on social media and added sections on such new technologies as altmetrics, 3D modelling, and virtual/augmented reality.

I also updated and enhanced the online references and resources at my website, Explaining Research. The neat thing about having online references is that I can continually add new resources as I discover them.

I’m particularly pleased that the new edition includes a section on how researchers can work productively with PIOs. The section includes a discussion on why a “PIO/journalist” is far more effective than a “sales rep PIO,” how PIOs in different institutions face different issues, and how PIOs can help researchers and vice versa.

Contact info:

Dennis Meredith, 760 451-6845, dennis@glyphus.com, http://dennismeredith.com/, Blog: https://researchexplainer.com/, @ExplainResearch
Book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/explaining-research-9780197571316
Publicist: Christina Fleischer, 212-726-6251, science.books@oup.com

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

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