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Research Metrics

Information and resources to demonstrate impact using research metrics

Demonstrating impact

The activity of measuring and describing the quality and impact of academic research is increasingly important in Australia and around the world. In Australia, factors behind this include:

  • economic conditions and increasing competition for government funding
  • development of ERA which measures the academic excellence of research and the view that impact measures would complement this assessment
  • general concern to improve the operation of the national innovation system
  • need to demonstrate to the public that research funds are well-spent

ERA 2018 included an Engagement & Impact Assessment report that "examined how universities are translating their research into economic, social and other benefits and encourage greater collaboration between universities, industries and other end-users of research."  In this context the ARC used the following definitions: 

  • Engagement: the interaction between researchers and research end-users outside of academia (including governments, businesses, non-governmental organisations, communities and community organisations), for the mutually beneficial transfer of knowledge, technologies,  methods or resources.
  • Impact: the contribution that research makes to the economy, society, environment or culture, beyond the contribution to academic research.​

Source: https://utas.libguides.com/research_impact

Maximising research impact

This guide provides information on a range of metrics and the tools available to calculate those traditional quantitative metrics.

Information on Alternative metrics, or Altmetrics, is available in the online guide: Altmetrics

Information on how to capture evidence and describe research outputs is available in the online guide: Research Evidence for Grants and Promotion

It is important to communicate your research, this can be achieved by:

  • Creating researcher profiles
  • Making your publications available via open access 
  • Sharing your research data
  • Communicating your research on social media
  • Joining researcher networks

For more information on communicating and sharing your research consult the online guide: Strategic publishing

Responsible use of metrics

With great power comes the responsible use of metrics (29:25 min) by University of Cambridge (YouTube)