5.8 Promoting yourself as a student researcher

You may think that this discussion about copyright and fair use doesn’t apply to you, since you are only creating papers to share in class. However, you can publish and share your work online, even while you are a student. As you progress in your studies and head toward your first professional job, you’ll want to present yourself in the best possible light. Carefully consider what you want to share and how. Here are some things you can do:

• Join professional social networking communities such as LinkedIn that allow you to manage your professional identity. (The ISU Career Services offices can help you set up your LinkedIn page and give advice about your online presence.)
• There are some journals that publish student research specifically, like Involve for mathematics research or Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis for education research.
• If you participate in scholarly conferences, such as ISU’s Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression, consider sharing your research online. One place you can do this is ISU’s Digital Repository.

Whenever you create something or interact with people online you leave behind a digital footprint: clues about yourself that future professors, colleagues, and supervisors will be able to find for years to come.