The problem, though rarely about quality of research.

Visibility of research is becoming just as important as the research itself, given that a paper can only start being cited when other researches stumble upon it. There are tens of thousands of publications every year and a significant percentage of them contain brilliant concepts, methodologies and findings. Unfortunately many of them remain totally unnoticed.

The research itself might be excellent in every way possible, however in the current scientific climate a lack of visibility makes an excellent paper useless. When no one has heard of a research paper, even if it is truly revolutionary, it cannot lead to citation, debate, or collaboration. It is for this reason that publication does not necessarily guarantee discoverability of research. However many people tend to assume that publishing in an academic database will lead to discovery, and as a result researchers will not consider communication of their papers. This is now no longer the case; millions of papers are included within academic databases and with poor communication this creates an unsearchable library of knowledge.

Several factors lead to lack of visibility. One such factor is discoverability; if a research paper lacks appropriate keywords and the title of the paper is obscure, it is more likely to be missed during academic searches. This leads to a lack of citations even with very useful data, because those searching for the data can't find the paper in the database. A second aspect contributing to lack of visibility is the amount of time spent communicating work. Researchers will often invest an immense number of hours into creating high quality papers, however, very little time is spent communicating their work, and hence their findings only reach a small number of readers. Accessibility is another element; papers behind pay walls have less reach compared to those which are open access; a limitation in resources can restrict scholars from gaining access to many subscription articles. Collaboration can also be affected by visibility of research as networking opportunities arise at conferences, with research peers, etc. And these interactions will only grow if work is visible.

The growth of the digital network means that methods of communication has changed and expanded over the years. Researchers can utilize social networks, other academic forums, personal web pages and also contribute to web blogs or web casts to further spread awareness. Creating a good visibility for one's research is not equivalent to reducing its scientific value. The goal is to improve researchers' capacity to share their knowledge and reach their target audiences. Researchers need to make an effort to develop a strategy for communicating their papers beyond initial publication, by producing presentations of findings or sharing summaries online; as many of the most impactful researchers, in fact, don't produce the most innovative studies but, instead, communicate their work very well. It has never been more critical for good science to reach people, given the sheer volume of research being generated annually.

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