[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-594921-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-594921-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","australian-universities-review-amplifier-platforms-and-impact","Australian Universities’ Review - ‘Amplifier’ platforms and impact","","The article examines how Australian scholars use amplifier platforms, especially The Conversation, to frame engagement and demonstrate scholarly impact. It reviews growth trends and investigates motivations and outcomes using qualitative survey and interview data. Findings show scholars view engagement as an ethical imperative, prioritize evidence-based messaging, and value amplifying high-quality research. 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\nAustralian scholars’ use of The Conversation  \nKim Osman & Stuart Cunningham Queensland University of Technology  \nDigital and social media have grown exponentially to become highly influential spheres of public communication – increasingly crowded, contested, and corrupted, and increasingly in need of scholarly engagement. Alternative metrics (‘altmetrics’) that are generated from social and digital media platforms have become more important as indicators of impact and engagement for scholars. InAUR 61/2, we reviewed the growth of amplifier platforms and the academic and contextual reasons for their growth. In this article, we investigate how scholars frame their practices of engagement and impact, how they use ‘amplifier platforms’, in particular The Conversation, and to what extent institutions are supporting their staff in these activities. We find that scholars frame engagement and impact as an ethical imperative and place importance on evidence-based messaging; that they are not only interested in seeing their own research amplified, but in amplifying other quality research; that this benefits their other academic activities; that open access models promote republication and increase reach and engagement; and that institutional support for engaging on amplifier platforms is uneven and underdeveloped.  \nKeywords: public scholarship, amplifier platforms, digital media, online scholarly communication, The Conversation, engagement and impact  \nIntroduction  \nAmplifier platforms are used by scholars to engage with wider publics and stakeholders than academia alone. The most prominent amplifier platform in Australia is The Conversation, a digital media platform that publishes articles written by academics and is aimed at a general readership. The Conversation is an open platform that facilitates therepublication of its articles and is an effective channel for scholars to communicate their research to diverse audiences. This article is the second in a two-part investigation. Our article in Australian Universities’ Review 61/2 (Osman & Cunningham, 2019) focused on the academic and contextual reasons for the growth of amplifier platforms. This article draws on qualitative findings based on data collected through surveys and interviews with scholars across career stages, disciplines and institutions. We find that scholars frame engagement and impact as an ethical imperative and place importance on evidence-based messaging ; that they are not  \nonly interested in seeing their own research amplified, but in amplifying other quality research; that this benefits their other academic activities; that open access models promote republication and increase reach and engagement; and that institutional support for engaging on amplifier platforms is uneven and underdeveloped.  \nMethods  \nFirst, we collected data through a series of questions added to The Conversation’s annual survey of their readers and authors (who are also readers) . Our questions targeted authors and focused on motivations for publishing in The Conversation, whether it was useful in their careers, and the extent to which their institutions were supportive of such publishing activities.  \nThe survey was delivered to all readers and authors who visited the site during a two-week period in July 2017, and had 6,084 respondents. Of these, 196 respondents were  \nvol. 62, no. 1, 2020 ‘Amplifier’platforms and impact Kim Osman & Stuart Cunningham 41  \nA U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nFigure 1: Outcomes of writingfor The Conversation  \nauthors published by The Conversation who answered our questions and exactly half agreed to be interviewed by us. Of the 196 authors who answered our questions, most (78 per cent) rated publishing in The Conversation at least somewhat useful to their career, while 73 per cent indicated some level of institutional encouragement for","cbCaiswZA2rjeHIa","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiswZA2rjeHIa","pdf",499469,"English","# Introduction\n# Methods\n## Survey data and respondents\n## Interviews and sample selection\n## Interview participants","[{\"question\":\"What is the role of amplifier platforms such as The Conversation for scholars in Australia?\",\"answer\":\"Amplifier platforms help scholars engage wider publics and stakeholders beyond academia, and The Conversation specifically publishes academic articles for general readership.\"},{\"question\":\"How do scholars frame engagement and impact in the study?\",\"answer\":\"Scholars frame engagement and impact as an ethical imperative and emphasize evidence-based messaging, including amplifying other quality research.\"},{\"question\":\"What did the study find about institutional support?\",\"answer\":\"Institutional support for engaging on amplifier platforms is uneven and underdeveloped, despite some level of encouragement noted in survey responses.\"}]","Australian Universities’ Review - ‘Amplifier’ platforms and impact | PDF",1792080097,25]