Going beyond bibliometric and altmetric counts to understand impact | Library Connect

"Research impact and productivity are important considerations for promotion and tenure activities, but their influence and use within the academic community extend far beyond these specific applications. Researchers are increasingly called on to demonstrate the impact of their efforts in a variety of circumstances and settings:    Discover how research findings are being used Identify similar research projects Identify possible collaborators Confirm that research findings were properly attributed/credited Discover community benefit as a result of research findings Compile progress reports  Justify funding requests Quantify and document research impact    Across research institutions, librarians are increasingly called upon to help researchers meet this need to better understand the greater impacts of research funding toward the advancement of science and (in the case of biomedical research) improved human health. Librarians are responding through traditional approaches, as well as through good old fashioned detective work ... A number of alternative indicators and outputs (beyond journal articles) can help us to understand the more meaningful picture of research impact on the micro and macro levels. For example, building upon existing software code, reuse of research datasets, advancements in technology that lead to new devices and instrumentation or new experimental protocols, and even oral testimony which leads to policy change are all examples of going beyond the counts to find the interesting stories beneath the surface. These few examples (and many others!) can yield valuable insights into meaningful impact. By going beyond the counts, it becomes possible to see how research efforts helped to accelerate a discipline or improve human health or change the way society works.    Where do you find this information? ... Cathy Sarli and I developed the Becker Model for the Assessment of Research Impact (2). This library-based framework for understanding meaningful research impact serves as a guide for libraries wishing to carry out this type of impact analysis. This evolving framework supplements publication analysis to provide a more robust and comprehensive perspective of biomedical research impact. We furnish tools to support this process, including reporting templates, glossaries, information about indicators, and suggested readings to help put things into context. The Model also provides guidance for quantifying and documenting research impact and suggested resources for tracking the diffusion of research outputs and activities and locating the evidence of impact. The framework can be applied at the micro (item or individual), meso (group or center), or macro (institution or greater) levels ..."