Raising your profile

Academic societies, like NCFR, can be quite effective at raising the professional profile of members. Winning a prestigious award, editing a top-tier journal, serving in a national office, speaking on an international stage, and becoming an NCFR Fellow are newsworthy events that provide opportunities for NCFR to promote you and your work.

In our continuing efforts to recognize members, NCFR has begun to issue media releases for NCFR members who author articles published in NCFR journals. Our first pilot was for "Sampling Richness and Qualitative Integrity: Challenges for Research with Families," published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, Volume 77, Issue 1, February 2015. The authors were Kevin Roy, Anisa Zvonkovic, Abbie Goldberg, Elizabeth Sharp and Ralph LaRossa. The full-color release was sent to university administrators and others and has the added benefit of being a concise one-page document that can be easily saved and inserted into the next update of your vita. These NCFR-produced media releases are in addition to those distributed by our journal publisher, Wiley Blackwell.

JMF in the news

Speaking of newsworthy, within the past couple of months, two Journal of Marriage and Family articles have garnered scores of mentions in the traditional news outlets and social media. "Does the Amount of Time Mothers Spend With Children or Adolescents Matter?" by Melissa Milkie, Kei Nomaguchi and Kathleen Denny (April 2015 issue), started its run with an article in The Washington Post and made its way through The Telegraph, NBC's The Today Show, Slate, the Evaluations blog of The New York Times, The Guardian, Pew Research Center's Fact Tank blog, the Los Angeles Times (op-ed), The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune; Boston Public Radio; and many more smaller market outlets.

Then in June, the article "The Production of Inequality: The Gender Division of Labor Across the Transition to Parenthood," by Jill Yavorsky, Claire Kamp Dush and Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, was picked up by The Washington Post, Time, the Taking Note blog of The New York Times, Science World Report, Education News, Tech Times, The Times of India, and other sources.

High-quality research published in top-tier journals, effective titling of articles, well-crafted abstracts, strategic media relations, and perhaps our new online early article release have all contributed to getting your research into the mainstream of society. These results contribute to the fulfillment of one of NCFR's main objectives — to support the dissemination and application of research- and theory-based information about the well-being of families by raising the visibility of family research, theory, and practice to policy makers and the general public.

Altmetrics

A relatively new feature on the journal websites attaches a score to articles based on their "reach." Inclusive of Twitter, blogs, mainstream media, cites, Facebook, and Mendeley readers, Altmetrics is an alternative to "citations only" as a method of evaluating the breadth and depth of an article's impact. The Altmetrics Badge is a circular multi-colored graphic that contains the current score of the article and can be seen on the online article page just above the abstract. By clicking on each element of the score, one can access the details of each media placement. Check it out by logging in to ncfr.org as a member and selecting one of the three journals from the drop-down publications menu.

An added feature of Altmetrics is notification of media exposures. You can sign up to receive notification each time an article is mentioned in any of the media tracked by Altmetrics.

Election results and leadership in NCFR

Congratulations to all members who were candidates in the NCFR elections. (Election results are shared in this issue of Report.) If you were not elected this time, please know that there are many opportunities to lead in NCFR, both in elected and appointed positions and in other ways. There are numerous initiatives underway as well as opportunities to lead within Sections and Focus Groups. Initiatives include: increasing awareness of family science in high schools; developing a leadership program for NCFR members; including family life educators as qualified candidates for Head Start positions in Michigan; and setting standards for family science degree programs. Please contact us at [email protected] if you have an interest in getting involved in NCFR initiatives and projects.

Vancouver in November

Planning continues for the 2015 NCFR conference. Make your plans to attend now and secure travel and hotel arrangements. The conference experience can transform you personally and professionally. I hope to see you in Vancouver!

Copyright © 2015 National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). Contact NCFR for permission to reprint, reproduce, disseminate, or distribute by any means.