App aims to help disseminate research in bite-sized form

Hussain Ayed is determined to revolutionise the way people access academic research. And now, following on from a successful series of podcasts, he is behind a new app that aims to take things even further.

Whereas the podcast series was aimed at a general audience, the soon-to-be-launched app, Acaudio, is designed to “change the dissemination model” for research among more specialist readers.

Academics record a five- to eight-minute summary of their paper or book on their phone, sticking to a standard structure: background, methods, key findings, conclusions and recommendations. These are then uploaded onto the mobile app, which uses the Spotify model (free with ads or £6 a month without).

As a result, “a PhD or master’s student could be jogging and listening to a list of papers they have bookmarked”, Mr Ayed told Times Higher Education.

In an initial trial, a group of junior medics “found it a game-changer, particularly following Covid, when they are so pressed for time but still have to keep up with the latest research”, he added.

And changing the game is an area Mr Ayed is rather familiar with, being the founder and host of a series of academic podcasts known as The Know Show. 

“We carried out market research with 400 academics, looking at areas of friction” and found “a lot of issues around dissemination and consumption of research papers”, he explained. “I asked one researcher if I could interview him about a paper which had only six downloads at the time. Within 24 hours, we had about 5,000 views.”

This experience spurred Mr Ayed to create close to 200 podcasts, each 35 to 70 minutes long and covering everything from philosophy to computer science, in which he interviewed academics about their work to help “make academic research accessible to everybody”.

“I go into the podcast with no preparation. I don’t read the paper or any of the books but simplify it as much as possible, showing it’s not just exciting research but that there’s a human being behind it,” he said. “Many academics don’t have the time, energy or motivation to start up their own podcasts. We’re unlocking a lot of hidden research, giving people a glimpse into worlds that are so significant.”

Not only do these podcasts generate an average 2,000 to 2,500 downloads, but clips and highlights are posted on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, meaning they reach “14- to 18-year-olds who aren’t typically reading academic papers”, according to Mr Ayed.

Now, in order to help the new app take off, the team created an algorithm that “generates invitations”. If a paper is published on biochemistry, for example, relevant users will be informed and invited to press a button if they are interested. Acaudio will then inform the author that “x number of people are interested in your new paper. Would you kindly share an audio summary of it on our app?”

After all, Mr Ayed admitted, for the app to be successful, they need to hit critical mass: “If we have only one biochemistry paper on it, what use is it going to be for all the biochemists out there?”

matthew.reisz@timeshighereducation.com