Ninth Level Ireland

“In a rapidly changing higher education landscape, where the meaning of ‘impact’ and the expectations surrounding it are continually developing, the perceived relevance of social media seems obvious. Accordingly, increasing numbers of institutions are encouraging their researchers to take up social media to communicate their research to wider society …” (more)

[Katy Jordan and Mark Carrigan, LSE Impact Blog, 31 May]

“The next framework programme for European research funding should have ‘a more sophisticated approach’ to impact, according to Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for research, science and innovation …” (more)

[Holly Else, Times Higher Education, 10 November]

“A few years ago, a particular word started to appear with increasing regularity in international higher education and research circles. The word was ‘impact’. Its increasing prevalence derives from the desire, particularly in straitened economic times, to assess the benefits of the funding applied to higher education and research …” (more)

[Orla Feely, Irish Times, 24 September]

“Citation behaviors vary widely between and within STM and HSS; within particular disciplines citations can also play sharply different kinds of roles. The complexity of adducing scholarly significance from citation metrics is further increased as scholars may use citations differently from one publication to the next …” (more)

[Karin Wulf, The Scholarly Kitchen, 16 July]

“The impact element of the research excellence framework was almost as costly to institutions as the entire 2008 research assessment exercise. That is one of the findings of Rand Europe’s assessment of institutions’ and panellists’ experience of the inaugural inclusion of impact in the 2014 REF …” (more)

[Paul Jump, Times Higher Education, 2 April]

“Senior academics are most concerned about the effect of the research excellence framework on intellectual freedom, while junior colleagues are more worried about the ‘impact agenda’, an analysis suggests …” (more)

[Chris Havergal, Times Higher Education, 8 January]

“Publishing in a high-impact journal carries the implicit promise that the article will also be highly cited. But the proof of this logic remains unsubstantiated …” (more)

[Anne-Wil Harzing and Wilfred Mijnhardt, Impact of Social Sciences, 17 September]

“Like many of my fellow journalism lecturers, I often get asked for tips on turning academic research into journalism pieces. These requests have been getting more frequent. It’s a compliment, but why is there a sudden interest in making academic work more accessible? …” (more)

[Maxine Newlands, The Conversation, 11 February]

“Coventry University have devoted time, talent and resources to come up with an embedded management tool to help academics plan and capture the impact of their research. Julie Bayley discusses the lessons learnt through the process of creating a functional, self-service solution that appeals to administrators and academics …” (more)

[Impact of Social Sciences, 7 February]

“I thought it would be interesting to compare some Irish institutions by examining their research output over the last three decades. This is first measured by number of publications, and then by considering the relevance of these citations to the community …” (more)

[Michael Seery, Is this going to be on the exam?, 28 January]

“Researchers at the London School of Economics have urged social scientists to join forces across disciplines and make far better use of the ‘impact’ agenda to demonstrate how much they can contribute to the economy and society …” (more)

[Matthew Reisz, Times Higher Education, 9 January]

“Much of the discussion around altmetrics to date has centred on the debate around measuring impact, and whether traditional citation-based measures can offer a true reflection of the use, engagement with and value of research to the broader community …” (more)

[Michelle Dalton, libfocus, 11 October]

“When it comes to research and innovation, a small country can face particular challenges. That’s why a group of representatives from six small and technologically advanced economies – including Ireland – met in Dublin last week to discuss how to measure the impacts of research investment …” (more)

[Claire O’Connell, Irish Times, 7 October]

“My annual report for the 2012-13 academic year stares at me from an undisturbed corner of my desk. I’m tempted not to fill it out. It’s not that I’ve spent the past year in blissful inactivity. It’s just that what I’ve produced has no place on this form …” (more)

[Sam Wineburg, Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 August]

“More than one in five of those sitting in judgement on the quality of scholarly work in the 2014 research excellence framework will not be academics but instead will be drawn from companies, the government and organisations such as charities …” (more)

[David Matthews, Times Higher Education, 20 June]

“Last week Phillip Blond proposed a simplistic solution to the problem of why academics are failing to make policy impacts: less evidence, more ‘big ideas’ …” (more)

[Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin, Impact of Social Sciences, 18 June]

“Conversations on impact tend to revolve around technical issue of measurement and finding appropriate metrics. To widen the conversation J Britt Holbrook presents a list of 56 indicators of impact developed by the Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity to help simplify the question of impact …” (more)

[Impact of Social Sciences, 12 June]

“So you’re just recovering from the last ERA (Excellence for Research Australia) assessment? Dust yourself off, Excellence in Innovation for Australia (EIA) is heading our way. This is the new paradigm for measuring university research …” (more)

[Santina Bertone, The Conversation, 3 June]

“The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced a renewed four-year commitment between the Irish Universities Association and Thomson Reuters to demonstrate the efficiency and global impact of Ireland’s scientific research …” (more)

[Stockhouse, 7 May]

“The common impact narrative, illustrated best by the Research Excellence Framework, is one of ‘accountability’ – impact as the most effective way of demonstrating research’s value for money. But research impact is much broader than this limited bureaucratic understanding …” (more)

[Andrew Clappison, Impact of Social Sciences, 17 April]