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Explaining Research: How to Reach Key Audiences to Advance Your Work, Second Edition

Communication tools are as essential to your research as your instruments 

Your research and career success depends not only on conducting incisive experiments and publishing in top journals. You must also explain your work clearly and engagingly to important audiences: your colleagues, potential collaborators, officers in funding agencies and foundations, donors, your institution's leaders, corporate partners, students, legislators, your own family and friends, journalists, and the public.

The first edition of Explaining Research has become the leading source of in-depth guidance for researchers on how to communicate their work.

The second edition builds on the tried and true communication techniques offered in the first, featuring a wealth of new strategies, such as for successfully using social media and effectively working with public information officers.

The second edition also highlights new tools that have evolved since the first edition. For example, three-D printing now enables researchers to create accurate molecular models for professional and lay-level presentations. And virtual/augmented reality enables researchers to literally immerse audiences in their research.

The second edition also features a trove of new insights from leading science journalists and communicators and a foreword by Nobel Laureate Peter Agre.

This authoritative guide shows you how to

* Explore the book and search for topics
* Read the Foreword by Nobel Laureate Peter Agre.

* Read the Introduction.
* Use the References & Resources section.
* Learn about Dennis Meredith's communication workshops.
* Download a flyer for the book

Praise for the first edition of Explaining Research

... an avalanche of guidance on every facet of explaining research, from giving compelling PowerPoint presentations to advising museum exhibits, shooting video, writing press releases, and talking with the media and with policymakers.
American Scientist

...a huge range of tools and techniques are presented and successfully explained .... The book is consistently positive and encouraging, convincing the reader to step up and engage with the public, balancing aspirational suggestions with cautionary tales. Meredith wears his extensive experience lightly and his engaging style and up-to-date material are sure to make this book extremely popular as the need to tailor research communication to new audiences grows.
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry

...a well thought out How-to guideline for scientists who wish to create a communication strategy that is effective in today's world.... He creates a compelling case to motivate scientists into action and he provides an authoritative guide to show how it can be done. Any scientist in today's culture of media should have 'Explaining Research' on hand.
The Physiologist, American Physiological Society

...a fabulous guide for scientists seeking to communicate the fruits of their labours.... Meredith offers stacks of advice on everything from creating a great website and crafting a well-written press release to preparing online videos and writing a blog. It is inspiring stuff, yet rooted in reality...
Physics World

... an excellent guidebook, full of practical tips and advice and, just as important, key things to avoid and illustrations of how not to do it, so that readers can, as the subheading says, 'reach key audiences to advance their research'.
Chemistry World

It is so important for scientists and engineers to communicate their work to the public no matter what field they are in. Explaining Research provides great advice to those new to the experience, and there's opportunity for the more experienced among us to learn, too.
Peter Agre, M.D., Nobel Laureate and former President, AAAS

... a must-have, must-read not only for its primary target audience, scientists, researchers and engineers, but also, given the new media landscape, for just about anyone eager to enhance his/her science communications skills (be it as aspiring journalist, public information specialist or educator). Do yourself a career-enriching favor and get it.
Ben Patrusky, Executive Director Emeritus, Council for the Advancement of Science Writing

What every scientist needs—a communication coach who gives you the tools to succeed while simultaneously urging you forward and cheering you on. The book is full of hard-won practical advice, drawn not just from Meredith's own experience but from interviews with leading practitioners. I'm already recommending this book to my students and colleagues.
Bruce Lewenstein, Professor of Science Communication, Cornell University

Dennis Meredith's book is must reading for anyone tasked with helping scientists explain their research to the media. It's a thorough and insightful survey of the problems that confound the process when practiced by people who don't understand the needs of science journalists or the nuances of the profession. He provides the straight story of how it all works in the real world.
Tom Siegfried, science writer/editor