Supporting Research Communications: a guide

In our book, we propose a way forward for us as a community to build an ideal future truly supportive of researchers. We believe we can work more effectively together than when alone by drawing on the existing work of others. But more than that, we would be even more powerful as a community based on values that come out of this collective interest. Coordination is difficult, and this is best addressed not by any set of rules, but by working more effectively together. 

We offer a number of current observations: examples of successfully run efforts that support research communications and descriptions of anti-patterns which have an opposite effect. We then delve into core issues plaguing our efforts -- funding, governance, rewarding, and communication -- and provide suggestions based on patterns and opportunities embedded within these issues we have identified. We close with ten shared values that most exemplifies what brings us together as well as how we can work more effectively as a community. The aim of this book is to bring Supporters together as a community. Let us start the conversation about what this means to practice these values in our collective endeavor.