Promote: Research performance

Being able to measure the impact and quality of research will be important to each researcher when applying for grant funding and career progress. Dedicated tools to assist in the process of measuring, commonly referred to as bibliometrics, are available to undertake performance analyses based on publications, citations and collaborative data. Institutions will use bibliometric data to benchmark performance, recruit staff and identify areas of strength or weakness.

Some of the commonly used metrics

• Article metrics provide insights into the “impact” or “reach” of an individual article.
• Journal metrics measure the influence of individual journal titles.
• Author metrics are citation metrics that measure the bibliometric impact of individual authors, researchers, academics, and scholars. e.g. the h-index.
• Normalised metrics are citation metrics which have been adjusted to allow comparison across disciplines.
• Alternative metrics (Altmetrics) show how many times a research output has been shared or mentioned across social media, media and internet websites.

Some of the commonly used tools                                             

• Scopus
• Web of Science
• Google Scholar

In 2018 the Australian Research Council conducted the first Engagement and Impact Assessment to assess how well researchers are engaging with end-users of research.  The results show how universities are translating their research into economic, social, environmental, cultural and other impacts. 

Researchers may individually need to supply evidence of engagement and impact when applying for grant funding or promotion.  The tools and metrics listed above will assist you in this process. 

• Research Engagement is the interaction between researchers and end-users outside of academia, for the mutually beneficial transfer of knowledge, technologies, methods or resources.
• Research Impact is the contribution that research makes to the economy, society, environment or culture, beyond the contribution to academic research.

To facilitate growing your engagement and impact researchers are encouraged to;

• communicate and share findings (eg. academic and non-academic, open access, open data, marketing, social media/digital footprint)

• engage with stakeholders (eg. facilitating meetings/workshops, testimonials, etc.)

• plan your research impact

• assess your research impact

• others (eg. working to get your research into policy documents)   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download the research impact eBook from Taylor & Francis for information on how to achieve full impact for your work.

Australian Research Council documents on Engagement and Impact