A new paradigm of scholarly communications is emerging: A report from the Future of Impact conference | Impact of Social Sciences

"How can alternative digital methods of scholarly assessment maximise the public impact of academic research? This is a question that all of us interested in alt-metrics have been asking ourselves. 'Impact' is a term that can be understood in many different ways too. With this in mind we attended 'The Future of Academic Impact' conference organised by the London School of Economics Public Policy Group on Tuesday the 5th of December 2012 at Senate House, London, which sought 'to look forward to how impact research and measurement might develop over the next ten-year period looking beyond REF2014.' (REF stands for the Research Excellence Framework). The event successfully marked the end of the three-year Impact of the Social Sciences project based at the London School of Economics (funded by the HEFCE). This project looked at 'the nature and measurement of impact of academic research in the social sciences on government and policy-making, business and industry, and civil society...'”