Laurie Taylor Column

"The next research assessment exercise is not 'all about publishing in high-impact journals. It is about ensuring that... research is disseminated by whatever means'" - Rama Thirunamachandran, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, The Times Higher , July 22 .

Researcher: Professor Gordon Lapping

Title of Research Paper: A Longitudinal Analysis of Television Viewing Habits 2004-05.

Abstract: 200 Poppleton residents (controlled for age, gender and sobriety) were questioned on two separate occasions about the number of hours they devoted to television viewing. Results indicated that viewing in the period between March 2004 and March 2005 had declined by a daily average of 35 minutes. This result was found to be compatible with Gumbril and Gumbril (2004).

How were your results disseminated?

1. A summary of the key findings was published in Hellza Poppleton , the widely circulated Thursday free paper, under the title "Here's NOT looking at you, kid: the big Poppleton switch-off".

2. A research paper was presented to the biannual conference of the North Wales Media Society at the University of Colwyn Bay on February 6, 2005, under the title " Ynôl ystegau mai pobl yn peido gwlior teledu yn Poppleton " (rough translation, to an initial audience of nearly 22).

3. More than 400 people in the researcher's "Address book" were e-mailed a summary of the findings. Thirty-eight of these offered appreciative remarks. Some 109 failed to arrive because of viral firewalls.

4. A further 63 people were texted with a picture msg of the researcher sitting at his desk together with an abstract of the findings under the title "Bg drp n tv wtchng sez tp uni don".

5. A basic outline of the research was broadcast to large crowds on the university's Open Day by use of an ER-69W Shoulder Megaphone.

6. Further dissemination of the findings in the Poppleton region was achieved in June by an aerial leaflet drop from a Cessna 14.

The University of Poppleton
Spreading the Word