Making Convincing Choices: Sharing/Communicating Research Outcomes

This chapter explores the ‘downstream’ end of the research journeyResearch journey, where research learning, knowledge, and outcomes are shared with/communicated to relevant audiences and interested stakeholders. The researcher shapes the stories they wish to convey about their research, translating their choices made throughout their journey into forms that will resonate with intended audiences. Communication may be largely unidirectional (researcher to audience). In other cases, research sharing may be multi-directional, participative, and reciprocal, involving the researcher and interested and/or potentially impacted people/communities, and may also encompass direct or indirect actions or impacts. The researcher’s stories/actions should be influenced by the choices made throughout their journey, critically reflect on relevant contextualisationsContextualisation, acknowledge the influences/impactsResearch outcomesimpact of relevant stakeholders/gatekeepersGatekeepers, where appropriate, and be guided by meta-criteria for research qualityMeta-criteria for research quality, categoriescontextualisation. A well-maintained research journal will prove immensely helpful in shaping those stories/actions. If the research produces a concrete innovationInnovation as an outcome, then at least some of the research sub-stories will need to address efforts to evaluate, share, facilitate, and spread adoption of that innovationInnovation to interested potential users and communities. If the research recommends specific actions to be undertaken, the arguments, contexts, and ultimate goals for such actions need to be clearly spelled out.