From publication to dissemination: using social media to extend scholarly reach and impact

In academic medicine, publication has often been treated as the endpoint of scholarship. In today's crowded digital environment, however, publication alone does not ensure that important work will be seen, discussed, or used. This commentary argues that dissemination is an essential part of scholarship and that social media, when used thoughtfully, can play an important role in extending the reach and visibility of scholarly work. The authors make 3 central arguments. First, increasing the visibility of scholarship is a legitimate scholarly aim, not merely a marketing exercise, because greater visibility can help scholarship reach relevant audiences, stimulate engagement, and generate evidence of dissemination that complements traditional markers of impact. Second, concerns about self-promotion are understandable but should be reframed. Sharing one's work is more appropriately viewed as an act of scholarly dissemination and knowledge translation than as self-congratulatory or performative. Third, the authors offer practical, evidence-informed strategies for promoting scholarship on social media, including identifying target audiences, making scholarship easy to find and share, choosing platforms strategically, translating papers into accessible take-home messages, using visuals, posting more than once, involving coauthors and institutions in dissemination, using hashtags and at-mentions strategically, and documenting evidence of reach and engagement. The authors also note that the social media landscape has changed substantially in recent years, suggesting the need for updated research on newer and evolving platforms. Overall, they contend that helping scholarship reach the audiences who may benefit from it is not peripheral to academic work, but an important component of scholarly dissemination in contemporary academic medicine.