Science can't just stay in the ivory tower. But what does impact really mean and how does it happen? A study of more than a decade of ecological fieldwork projects in Bolivia suggests a better way.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Research impact
Displaying 1 - 20 of 46 articles
Africa has recorded a tremendous growth in its output of academic engineering research over the past 20 years. Greater collaboration can increase this growth even more.
Engagement and impact will be part of research performance assessment starting in 2018, signalling a shift in what kind of research we value and why.
Ensuring knowledge creates impact involves disciplinary excellence, communication, co-location and funding.
Are we in danger of losing academic freedom?
The scientific impact of a research paper increases with every additional commenter who provides feedback – particularly if the comment came from a well-connected academic.
This move to measure the impact of university research on society introduces many new challenges that were not previously relevant when evaluation focused solely on academic merit.
Medical entries on Wikipedia are widely consulted across the world. Doctors and medical researchers need to make efforts to ensure the content on the online collaborative encyclopedia is accurate.
Without data, people don't know what to believe or whom to trust. Empirical, thorough data collected by academics can help to fill important governance gaps.
The academic medical community largely views Wikipedia with suspicion. But some traditional journals are starting to take the site more seriously – and some journals work very closely with it.
Researchers and policymakers need to talk to each other. If they don't, important research will merely gather dust and policies might do more harm than good.
Engagement is not impact, and simple measures such as non-government research income tell us very little about genuine external engagement between universities and industry.
Irony can provide new theoretical insights. Social scientists should embrace it.
New rules could have a chilling effect on academic freedom of speech.
The new impact framework will improve some of the problems arising out of the ERA's university research audit, but major challenges will remain.
A government report on research funding and policy has recommended introducing a funding incentive to ensure university research benefits society and business.
Prime Minister Turnbull has signalled a desire to move away from a 'publish or perish' academic culture toward one that prioritises public impact and engagement. It's a challenge scholars should embrace.
Publicly-funded research should contribute to society in some way. But we need to think carefully about how we create a system that allows us to measure the impact of research.
A new policy on research outputs and funding will be introduced in South Africa in 2016. But it leaves too much unchanged from the old policy.
A lack of access to quality, peer-reviewed information can actually contribute to societal and educational inequality. How can Open Access help?
Top contributors
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Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics, University of York
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Assistant Professor, Stockholm University
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Associate professor, Lund University
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Adjunct research fellow, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of International Higher Education, UCL
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Senior Lecturer, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University
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Associate professor, Management Discipline Group UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney
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Manager, Library Digital Infrastructure, Western Sydney University
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Higher Education Program Director, Grattan Institute
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Deputy Vice Chancellor Research & Innovation, University of South Australia
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Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
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Executive Director, Development & Communications, Australian Technology Network of Universities
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Professor of Accounting, University of Technology Sydney
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President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and Director of the Asia-Pacific Program for Social Investment and Philanthropy in the Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University
