Frequently
Asked
Questions

What license covers the podcasts?

Relax, you’re covered. All our podcasts are licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives license. With this, you and anyone else are free to share, copy, and redistribute your podcast through any medium, as long as the following conditions are met:

  • Attribution is given to the paper (title, authors, journal, year, DOI), as well as us at researchpod.org
  • The podcast is not modified in any way
  • The podcast is not used for commercial purposes

Who creates the podcasts?

For scripted podcasts, the script is created by an academically trained science communicator, who then adds a narrative arc and any necessary context to your work, before sending it to a professional voice actor of your choosing. For interview and video podcasts, interviews are conducted with one of our producers, and edited by our team for clarity and flow. Clients have executive review throughout both levels of production, with time to amend and approve any scripts and final recordings.

When do you ask for payment?

Clients are invoiced upon commencement of production work. Once we begin our work, an invoice will be sent via email allowing payment to be completed in either GBP, USD, CAD or EUR. We are able to take payment via credit card or bank transfer, and we are happy to work with your finance team to make this as smooth as possible.

Are there any hidden costs you don’t mention?

Absolutely not – what you see is what you pay for our packages. However, we may potentially apply additional charges in cases where you’d like to extend your recording, make more revisions, or change the voiceover once produced. We’re always honest with you about this, so you’ll always be in the know.

Will you keep my work confidential?

Of course! We will keep your work under wraps until you are happy for us to release it to the world. Because believe us, once it’s out there, it’ll be seen.

What type of research do you accept?

Absolutely anything you like. Whether it be quantum physics or molecular biology, our team are scientifically trained to deal with any discipline. We love a challenge, so why not put us to the test?

Which channels will host my podcast?

Your podcast will appear on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio and pretty much every other podcast channel. If there are any services we aren’t currently reaching, do let us know, or if you’d rather keep your episode off any specific archives for private use, we can arrange that as well.

How many people will listen to my podcast?

Your podcast will reach our organic subscriber base of thousands of academics, professionals and engaged members of the public. Episodes receiving an additional social media promotion campaign will reach an additional online audience, which can be further targeted and refined by geography, interest or platform.

How do you promote your episodes?

Our promotions elevate the visibility of your recordings through onsite SEO, Facebook promotions, LinkedIn placement and Twitter campaigns. These can either achieve broad dissemination, guaranteeing at least 20,000 impressions, or focused dissemination tailored to your choice of interest, geography, platform and personal information.

Do you accept University payments? Can I pay using department budget/card details?

University payments, either on a departmental or institution level, are very welcome, and we can offer full invoices or transfer options for payment on request.

Is this a legitimate cost against my grant?

Yes – If your grant comes with an outreach component, we are an eligible expense. Just let us know if there’s anything we can do to help with grant administration.

Is this an allowable cost connected to academic paper publishing?

Yes.

What if I need to cancel my order?

Depending on what stage your order is at, we can either suspend the scripting, voice acting or interview until later, and recommence recording at a more suitable time. However, once your work has gone to the voice actor, we will be unable to issue any refunds.

Do you offer a bundle discount for multiple episodes?

We would be very happy to discuss developing a series with you – please get in contact with us and we’ll be in touch to discuss your needs soon.

Do you work with researchers from any particular area or background?

We work with researchers and authors from all disciplines, across the world. If you’d like some additional insights on how your research could be communicated, or are unsure of the works suitability for outreach, just let us know and we’ll happily discuss what we can offer.

Do you need to visit me?

If you have selected an audio or video interview with one of our producers, we are available to join you onsite with our portable recording station. However, this isn’t always a possibility, and recording interviews via VoIP services such as Skype or Zoom is always an option. In such cases, we can advise on how to maximise recording quality with simple equipment or adjustments on your end.

How will this affect my impact/altmetric performance?

Outreach efforts have been proven to significantly improve the Altmetric scores and visibility of academic papers, more than visual abstracts, and significantly more when combined with social media campaigns. Podcasting also improves the visibility, profile and approachability of authors and institutes, so if you’d like to build your SciComm credentials, podcasting is a great way to spread word about your work.

Will I own the final podcast file?

You will have ownership and executive control over your podcast. Throughout the scripting and production of audio and video interviews, you will be able to request edits on all drafts. After your episode is released, we are happy to help with any distribution or formatting requests you may have.

Can I promote on my own channels?

Absolutely. We’d be very happy to help cross-promote with our own channels, with every little bit helping to spread the word.

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