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In this blog post, we offer a quick rundown of how to use Kudos – so you can join those 460,000 researchers and start making a greater impact.

Why is promotion important?

Research matters, but it can only have an impact when it is read, shared and cited by many people. Promoting your discoveries is crucial to achieving this. It drives your potential to progress your career, achieve funder mandates and leave a legacy for a future generation of researchers. We know that knowledge exchange is where scientific advancements begin.

How to make an impact with Kudos

Your research story is worth telling, and Kudos can help you share it. There are four steps to get started.

1. Register for free. Setting up your Kudos personal profile is free. The first stage requires information such as your name and your institutions, and you can also start adding your publications by searching for the DOI, keywords and author names or via ORCID. These details will be showcased on your profile.

2. Create your Story. Kudos is known for its Stories, a plain-language summary of what your research is about and why it is important. It’s a unique and eye-catching way of presenting your publications to other scientists, the media and the general public. A Story is different to your article abstract, and it helps your audience quickly scan and understand your work. You will be shown how to effectively create a Story that includes:

   • a plain-language title for researchers and non-scientific audiences
   • a short ‘what’s it about?’ section to clearly explain your research
   • a ‘why is it important?’ section to emphasise why readers should explore your publication
   • an author's perspective for readers to get to know the team behind the research
   • a featured image from a broad, free-to-use selection

3. Share your Story. On your Story page, you can create trackable links to multiple social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Weibo and WeChat. This makes it easy to promote your Story and gives you the chance to see how well your promotional activities are going. Each link can be labelled – for example, ‘email signature’ or ‘poster’ – so you can see which sharing method is bringing in the best results. It is a way to help you feel informed and gain a sense of achievement when you do get good results.
   
   Your story could also feature in a Kudos showcase, where readers can explore the latest Stories from different publishers, universities and subject areas. Two Â鶹AV journals already have their own showcase – visit the ChemComm HOT article showcase and the Sensors & Diagnostics showcase.

4. Measure your success. On the Kudos website, you can easily see key performance metrics like:

   - number of shares

   - clicks on shares (for premium members only)

   - views on Kudos

   - clicks on ‘read publication’ button

   - your Altmetric score

   
   Kudos gives you these metrics to recognise and celebrate the impact you are making and to plan for future promotional activities.