Clinical pharmacists begin their scholarly career with hopes of publishing their research. Appropriate mentoring shifts this goal to publishing in a reputable journal and publishing articles that are highly downloaded and cited. These metrics indicate the value of the published work to patient care and additional research. Some research is widely circulated because it applies to a broad patient population, addresses a current hot topic, or is conducted by a highly regarded research team. Although the journal and publisher are primarily responsible for promoting published articles, an author can optimize the performance of an individual manuscript.

Promoting your own publication begins before manuscript submission. Choosing a title and writing an abstract that is clear and searchable and that uses the most relevant keywords is important for search engine optimization (SEO). This increases your article’s discoverability, helping people find, read, and cite your work. Wiley’s Author Resources provide tips on writing for SEO. An additional pre-submission decision for all authors is whether to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement or whether to publish under the terms of a Creative Commons license using OnlineOpen. Authors who choose to publish using OnlineOpen will be charged a fee (article publication charge), but the article is freely available online for all to read, download, and share. Removing the need for a subscription, membership, or institutional access will increase the accessibility of your published work.

You can promote your published work through multiple outlets. First, make sure your institution’s public relations office is aware of your newly published work, and provide suggestions on external organizations and news outlets interested in your work. Second, periodically update your employee profile page and your professional social media and researcher accounts to reflect recent publications (e.g., LinkedIn, Mendeley, ResearchGate). In addition, ACCP journals permit authors to share unlimited free access to their article with up to 10 colleagues through Article Share, allowing you to intentionally engage others in a conversation about your work.

ACCP journals post all accepted manuscripts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and encourage authors to submit Twitter handles and text to include in social media posts at article submission. Following journal accounts on social media will give you the opportunity to repost, add comments, and engage others on social media when your manuscript is featured. You can also create a post, an infographic, or even a short video to share on social media for additional discoverability and engagement.

Finally, take advantage of opportunities to talk about your research. Accept invitations to speak at reputable conferences and contribute to textbooks, educational resources, podcasts, and blogs. Most journal websites allow you to track your article’s performance as measured by citations and the Altmetric score. Periodically record this information on your curriculum vitae, dossier, or employee file to track the performance of individual articles and document your development as a scholar.

The impact of your published manuscript is primarily determined by your research design and results. However, creating publications that are promotable, publishing in journals that actively showcase your work, and independently drawing attention to your own publications will enhance your article’s discoverability and subsequent impact within your field of study.