ScienceGeist

This article explores the current literature on ‘research impact’ in the social sciences and humanities (SSH).

Impact is increasingly important for science policy-makers. Science policy studies have reacted to this heightened urgency by studying these policy-interventions.

How can science–society relations be better understood, evaluated, and improved by focusing on the organizations that typically interact in a specific domain of research.

Responding to an emerging debate around the changing nature of the impact agenda in the UK, the author argues that the current moment presents an opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of previous regimes of incentivising and assessing impact.

Read this complete guide to learn everything you need to know about the importance of academic research.

Altmetrics have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of scholarly communication, although the value they indicate is contested. A recent study examined the relationship of peer review, altmetrics, and bibliometric analyses with societal and academic impact. Drawing on evidence from REF2014 submissions, it argues altmetrics may provide evidence for wider non-academic debates, but correlate poorly with peer review assessments of societal impact.

With the government launching a major review of research bureaucracy and methods, James Wilsdon asks: is it the end of the road for impact measures in grant applications?

In a collaborative effort Dutch institutes and funders start development of new system of recognition and rewards.

Industries that rely on physics expertise contribute more to the EU economy than financial services or retail, according to a new study.

In practice the way in which research impacts and influences policy and society is often thought to be a rational, ordered and linear process. Whilst this might represent a ‘common sense’ understanding of research impact, this post reflects on how upending the primacy of data and embracing complexity can lead to a more nuanced and effective understanding of research impact. 

Eco groups and global treaty blamed for delay in supply of vitamin-A enriched Golden Rice

Fecher and Kobsda introduce the Research Impact Canvas - a structured guide to plan science communication activities.

The extent to which researchers can assess the impact of their public engagement is often under-analysed and limited to success stories. Drawing on the example of development aid, it is argued that we need to widen the parameters for assessing public engagement.

A personal account from climate scientist to climate activist, and motivation to join a climate action on Sept 20, 2019: the Global Climate Strike.

Our profession has been great at raising awareness. But this alone won't succeed against the might of the oil and gas lobbyists.

We face interconnected planetary emergencies threatening our climate and ecosystems. Scientists should join civil disobedience movements to fight these unprecedented crises.

Public confidence in scientists is on the upswing, and six-in-ten Americans say scientists should play an active role in policy debates about scientific issues, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

In this post it is discussed how open research can lead to economic benefits. The author suggests that future open research policies should focus on developing research discovery, translation and the capacity for research utilisation outside of the academy.

Canada’s top universities and research institutes spent $5.7 billion on research and development (R&D), but generated less than $75 million from licensing their innovations in 2017. That’s an average return on investment of 1.3 per cent.

At Elsevier's International Center for the Study of Research, experts will examine research using metrics and other qualitative and quantitative methods. 

Diversity, transparency, and reliability are essential principles to ensure that a proliferation of metrics does not distort the scholarly communication system, but leads to more granular and transparent assessments

The Journal Impact Factor has been widely critiqued as a measure of individual academic performance. However, it is unclear whether these criticisms and high profile declarations, such as DORA, have led to significant cultural change.

By Rob Cuthbert Tips from an editor on how Times Higher Education can shift the negative perceptions of people in higher education to reassert its value to the sector. Times Higher Educat…

Survey finds that 40% of research-intensive universities mention the controversial metric in review documents - despite efforts to dampen its influence.

Ten people who mattered in science in 2018. Picks include a rogue gene-editor, a wunderkind physicist and a DNA detective who helped catch a serial killer.

The idea of the conference is to bring to the fore the impact contributions of social sciences and humanities (SSH) research to transformative national and European research and innovation agendas, as well as to openly reflect on and structurally discuss the topic. Due to the huge interest in the conference and limited seating, a live-streaming of the main sessions of the conference on both conference days is offered. 

Despite vast increases in the time and money spent on research, progress is barely keeping pace with the past. What went wrong?