Research Impact and Engagement Evidence
What to evidence for impact and engagement: Evidence significance, reach, and attribution of your research’s impact by demonstrating its importance and value to beneficiaries, the extent of its reach, and how it directly or indirectly contributed to the impact, showing ‘before’ and ‘after’ changes and benefits.
Collecting Evidence
Impact and engagement evidence is crucial for demonstrating the benefits of research. Evidence should be high quality, verifiable, and independent.
Demonstrating impact with evidence supports funding and promotion applications, publishing strategy, academic CVs, and research assessment.
Impact Tracker is a central platform for UQ staff to collect and organize impact evidence.
Tips for evidence collection: explore diverse evidence types, collect evidence continuously from the start of the project, determine impact indicators and forms of evidence, trace a clear pathway from research to impact, communicate with stakeholders, make evidence accessible, and include narratives, data, and social media analytics.
Potential sources of evidence include: advisory boards, awards, changes in attitudes, commercialization, evaluations, media coverage, patents, policy changes, public discourse, and testimonials.
Sources of Evidence
Here is a non-exhaustive list (pdf) to provide some ideas for impact and engagement evidence.
Use the little and often approach with Impact Tracker to store your evidence in one accessible location.
Evidence of Impact:
Changes in attitudes, awareness, & behaviour; Citations; Commercialization and startups; Contributions; Co-publication; Field trials; Image; Influence on policy; IP protection (e.g., patent filing); Licensing research or outputs; Performance measures including profits, sales, audience numbers & downloads; Policy, legislation, or regulations; Press release; Promotional activities; Public sector collaboration; Service delivery and resource management; Testimonials, surveys, and feedback.
Evidence of Engagement:
Advisory boards, steering groups, and committees; Artistic & Creative; Award entry; Blog posts; Broadcast interview; Co-authoring; Collaborations; Composition/Score; Conference; Consultancy services; Creative Writing; Cultivating links with stakeholder organization(s); Curriculum, learning guidelines, and educational materials; Emails, inquiries, and correspondence; Engagement and outreach activities; Exhibition; Expert panel; Evaluations and reviews; Festival; Independent consultancy; Installation; Internships; Lobbying; Magazine content; Market research; Marketing campaign; Media interview; Meetings and events for stakeholder groups; Newspaper content; Online media such as news, interviews, podcasts, and videos; Participation in advisory committee; Patents, trademarks, and copyrights; Policy, legislation, or regulations; Position on subject area committee; Press conference; Public lecture/seminars and conferences; Public presentation; Public seminar or talk; Research co-supervision; Respond to media inquiry; Social media and analytics; Stakeholder information including reports, newsletters, and updates.
Research Impact and Engagement Metrics
Research metrics are powerful tools for measuring the influence and impact of scholarly work. By tracking these metrics, researchers can better understand their research impact, identify opportunities for collaboration and co-production, and improve their research methods. However, it’s important to remember that metrics are just one piece of the puzzle in demonstrating research impact. That’s why a “narrative with numbers” approach is recommended, where metrics are used alongside other indicators to complement and reinforce a compelling impact story.
There are various types of metrics that researchers can use to demonstrate their research impact and engagement, including:
Author Metrics
- h index
- Research outputs
- Citation count (total or average)
- Author benchmarking – field of research and location
- Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) (Further information on FWCI)
- Category Normalised Citation Impact (CNCI) (Further information on CNCI)
- Essential Science Indicators (ESI)
- Highly Cited Researchers (HiCi)
Article Metrics
Journal Metrics
Alternative Metrics
Patent Metrics
Book Metrics
- Major databases
- Library Holdings
- Book reviews
It’s important to use research metrics responsibly and in line with guidelines such as the Metric Tide and the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Leiden Manifesto. By utilizing metrics effectively, researchers can effectively communicate their research impact and engage with stakeholders.