Abstract
Digital media offer transformative possibilities for sharing and experiencing research. These new options call for design researchers and publishers to rethink traditional publishing norms. Yet, expanding access alone is insufficient; making academic knowledge meaningful to diverse audiences can drive real impact. How to engage audiences beyond academia to ensure a broader impact? This study applies the design tools framing and analogical modelling to shift the perspective on academic knowledge dissemination. This allows us to recognize scientific outputs as designed products that need to be brought to ‘the market’ with a clear path for reaching and engaging audiences. This study introduces Research Marketization as a novel concept. It incorporates the well-established principles of segmentation, targeting, and positioning. This study further develops the Research Impact Canvas as a practical artifact derived from the principles of Research Marketization and operationalizing them, providing researchers with a structured approach to increase the impact of scientific products.
Keywords
Knowledge Ecosystem; Scientific Publishing; Research Marketization; Research Impact Canvas
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1900
Citation
Breden, E., van Zeeland, E., and Henseler, J. (2026) From Scientific Publication to Scientific Impact: Designing Research for Reach and Engagement, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1900
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
From Scientific Publication to Scientific Impact: Designing Research for Reach and Engagement
Digital media offer transformative possibilities for sharing and experiencing research. These new options call for design researchers and publishers to rethink traditional publishing norms. Yet, expanding access alone is insufficient; making academic knowledge meaningful to diverse audiences can drive real impact. How to engage audiences beyond academia to ensure a broader impact? This study applies the design tools framing and analogical modelling to shift the perspective on academic knowledge dissemination. This allows us to recognize scientific outputs as designed products that need to be brought to ‘the market’ with a clear path for reaching and engaging audiences. This study introduces Research Marketization as a novel concept. It incorporates the well-established principles of segmentation, targeting, and positioning. This study further develops the Research Impact Canvas as a practical artifact derived from the principles of Research Marketization and operationalizing them, providing researchers with a structured approach to increase the impact of scientific products.