The Impact Journey Conference Poster uri icon

abstract

  • For many disciplines, the citation frequency of scholarly articles, alongside measures of the outlet in which they are published, remains a common (albeit controversial) means of evaluating the academic impact of research. However, evidence of the wider effects of impact (eg. societal, economic, or environmental) can’t always be captured via traditional metrics. In recent years, a growing number of funding agencies (such as the NIH and NSF) have started to ask institutions and researchers to provide qualitative evidence of the impact generated as a result of externally funded research, and this trend is expected to continue.

    Previously, there hasn’t been a standardised method for recording this qualitative data. At the end of 2015, Symplectic released an update to their leading Research Information Management System, Elements, which aims to tackle this. The Impact Module offers a system to help capture a narrative of emerging evidence of research impact.

    This presentation will explore how an impact narrative can be both captured and optionally displayed in a public-facing profile tool. Capturing and reusing impact data means researchers no longer have to rewrite the proof of the impact of their work during grant applications.


publication date

  • August 18, 2016