Disseminate Your Research

The ultimate “deliverable” of research is new or validated knowledge—and to be truly useful, knowledge must be shared.

Research involves many steps, and sharing the results of your efforts is the next task that lies before you after the working phase of your project has been completed–or is at last well under way. This crucial step of disseminating the new knowledge you have uncovered is absolutely essential to the research process. Others in your discipline and the community-at-large want, and need, to learn about your results. They may even undertake new research, scholarship, and creative activities in response to what they learn from your results. Disseminating your work is not just rewarding for you and your colleagues. It’s also a great way to add meaningful accomplishments to your resume or vita.

Opportunities for Dissemination

Presentation Opportunities at WSU

WSU students, faculty, and staff are eager to learn about your research, scholarship, and creative activities and what you have discovered through your efforts. There are numerous venues at WSU that make this exchange of information possible. Your professors, department, this website, and social media are good resources to learn about important dates, times, and places regarding these dissemination opportunities, as well as requirements to participate. Some key opportunities are listed below.

SURCA (the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities)

This annual spring event offers all students in every major from all campuses the chance to share their research results. See what other students are researching, deliver a one-to-one presentation to judges and guests, and win awards. Top presenters in SURCA’s nine categories are recognized at a special event . Those categories cover humanities, social sciences, arts, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. More than 200 undergraduate presenters and as many judges bring the venue to life. SURCA is organized and hosted by the WSU Office of Undergraduate Research, part of WSU Division of Academic Engagement and Student Achievement (DAESA) in the Provost’s office.

Bruya-Wood Undergraduate Research Conference

This twice-yearly event is hosted by the Kinesiology Club in the College of Education

Dept. of Psychology Undergraduate Research Symposium

This annual event is held each spring and was begun in 2002.

Publication Opportunities at WSU

Some colleges and departments have journals where you can publish your work. For example, the Honors College sponsors The Palouse Review, a juried online literary arts publication. Another example is WSU Libraries Research Exchange, an institutional repository for WSU in which all faculty members, staff, and students can share their research in any digital format. Check with your research mentor about what other dissemination possibilities may be available in your college or department.

What Kinds of Presentations Are Made at Meetings?

Oral presentations at symposia allow you to showcase excellent public-speaking skills which can be enhanced through skillful creation and use of visual aids such as posters due to the complex nature of research topics. Audiences are typically smaller than those accessing journal articles, but oral presentations allow increased interaction with your audience, such as through question-and-answer exchanges. Excellent oral presentations contribute to your perceived effectiveness as a researcher; in fact, interviews for research-based jobs often involve an oral presentation.

Poster sessions are perhaps the most versatile dissemination method. They allow for chances to foster discussions, exchange ideas, and network with other researchers. Good posters can almost “present themselves” without you there; when you are present, they can serve as effective visual aids for an informal speaking presentation.

Want to learn more? Submit a query to your favorite search engine to find “10 simple rules for” good poster or oral presentations. A multitude of excellent sources of information can be found online.

Presentations at the Regional, National, and International Levels

Meetings for Undergraduates

Our student researchers frequently submit abstracts and receive invitations to share research results beyond WSU. They travel to present at regional, national, and even international meetings in their discipline. For some, these venues offer their first experience to make and deliver a research presentation, though most choose to start at the local level, at SURCA or college-level dissemination events on campus.

Meetings that are geared toward undergraduates are also great places for a first presentation on research, scholarship, and creative activities. National meetings aimed at undergraduates frequently offer attractive and unique benefits, such as graduate-school recruiting fairs and special breakout sessions with information of interest to students. The industry-leaders, professionals, scholars, and students you meet there can also make great additions to your growing professional network.

Meetings specifically for undergraduates that have student support for travel funding include, but are not limited to:

National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), which features all types of research including the creative and performing arts.
Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), which is geared toward students involved in biomedical research (e.g. engineering, social sciences, biological, etc.).
The World Congress on Undergraduate Research is an international event held approximately every three years for Arts & Humanities students, cosponsored by America’s Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), the Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research (ACUR), and the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR). The event was held in Doha, Qatar in November 2016, in Oldenburg, Germany in May 2019, and in Coventry, England in April 2023.
Posters on the Hill is an annual spring undergraduate poster session sponsored by CUR on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Members of Congress and their staff learn about the importance of undergraduate research by talking directly with student presenters. Your research should be aligned with arts and humanities, biology, chemistry, education, engineering, geosciences, health sciences, mathematics and computer sciences, physics and astronomy, psychology, or social sciences.

Travel Award Applications and Preparing to Present

The WSU Office of Undergraduate Research can provide qualified applicants with partial support to cover the costs of traveling to make a conference presentation. We can also guide you to find additional funding from other sources. Applying for a travel award from us is one of many important steps you should take if you want to present your research at an event beyond WSU.

Publication Opportunities at Regional, National, and International Levels

A popular way to disseminate your research is to publish your findings in a scholarly journal. Instead of in-person presentations, this is a writing-based method of dissemination that has potentially the widest-reaching impact. It involves a rigorous and formal peer-review evaluation of your methods and findings by an objective third party. This method also offers unprecedented accessibility to and permanence of your work—journals and articles are increasingly available online or as downloadable files.

Publishing your work in written form gives your work a broad audience; it is made up of individuals with interests and knowledge related to the publication your work appears in. Your perceived impact as a researcher is predominantly measured by how other researchers refer to, and rely on, the articles you produce using this dissemination method.