North Carolina (NC) State University is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Total student enrollment at NC State as of fall 2022 was 37,873, with 27,317 undergraduates, and 10,556 graduate students. The student-to-faculty ratio is 15:1 and 79% of students have in-state residence.
In December 2021, the NC State University Libraries, through its Open Knowledge Center, completed a pilot project aimed at increasing the public impact of a faculty member’s research through a new service called “communicated scholarship.” This pilot service developed a strategic approach for moving faculty research concepts into public awareness through various modes, including digital scholarship, open access, public science, and scientific communication.
The public-impact strategy provided the faculty member with a menu of opportunities for public impact within three concentric circles: local (NC State University), interdisciplinary, and general public. These opportunities included participating in a podcast, submitting a preprint to a preprint server, writing a general interest piece for a lay audience, and hosting a Wikipedia edit-a-thon, among others.
This pilot service is directly tied to public and community impact primarily through the lens of open research services and publishing opportunities. By developing and publishing materials for different audiences and through different modes, the reach and impact of the research will increase.
As a result of this pilot the team at NC State is continuing to examine the opportunities for service scale and how to effectively operationalize a public-impact consultation. For more information about this project, see this article, “Increasing the Public Impact of Research (Pilot).”
For additional information about Accelerating Social Impact Research: Libraries at the Intersection of Openness and Community-Engaged Scholarship, please read the ARL report or view additional institutional profiles.
