4th Year Workshop

Simple summaries of your work

Ian McCarthy, Emory University

Economics PhD Professionalism Workshop

Quick summaries

  • Writing a paper is great.
  • Presenting papers in conferences can be really fun.
  • But this is all “academic facing” work for your field/subfield.
  • How can you get other people to read it?

Quick summaries

So how do we do this?

  • Not op-eds. I mean an accurate summary of your work but easy and quick to consume.
  • Visual abstracts
  • Short videos
  • Social media threads

Visual abstracts

  • Really just a slide to summarize your work
  • Concise but fair to your main point

Visual abstracts

Short videos

  • Everybody’s doing it!
  • Great way to make your work accessible to a broader audience

Social media

  • Bluesky has become the primary platform for academic economics
  • Share your papers, visual abstracts, and short summaries
  • Follow journals, NBER, and researchers in and out of your field
  • Relatively inclusive community with lots of shared papers and info

Social media etiquette

Some basic guidelines…

  1. Tone: Be kind. This is not the setting for criticism.

Jokes also don’t tend to land well in short posts.

Social media etiquette

Some basic guidelines…

  1. Tone: Be kind.
  2. Blocking/muting: Feel free to block or mute people that are rude. Protect your mental health.

Social media etiquette

Some basic guidelines…

  1. Tone: Be kind.
  2. Blocking/muting: Feel free to block or mute people that are rude.
  3. Identity: Start professional and add personality over time. When first getting started, focus on where you can add value.

Timing

A natural question regarding how to promote your paper on social media…when should I do it?

  • Not until you’re confident of the results!
  • Need not wait for official publication
  • R&R is OK, depending on the reviewer comments
  • Talk to your adviser (and co-authors) before promoting your papers