Communications strategies to broaden the reach of tobacco use research: examples from the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers.

One of the initial goals of the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC) initiative was to broaden the traditional model of how research results are communicated, going beyond scholarly journals, as a way to accelerate the discovery-to-dissemination process. A strategy in meeting this goal was the establishment of a communications program at the seven initially funded TTURCs. This paper reports the results of the communications efforts from the TTURC initiative. Specific communications activities are described, highlighting efforts to reach broad audiences and increase the impact of the research. We present lessons learned from this effort to enhance knowledge translation through the development of communications infrastructure and dissemination activities, focusing especially on the guidance they offer for the development of future research-communications partnerships.