Assessment, evaluations, and definitions of research impact: A review

Penfield, Teresa; Baker, Matthew; Scoble, Rosa; Wykes, Michael

doi:10.1093/reseval/rvt021

Cited by 432 publications

(408 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Gunn and Mintrom, 2017;Penfield et al, 2014;Upton et al, 2014) around impact has focused on how it should be measured (in fact, one downside of this has been the lack of attention to other, in some ways more profound, aspects of the question). Even if it were to be shown that impact can be achieved by universities, and that it were desirable for them to achieve it, there are still significant doubts about our ability to identify, assess and evaluate this impact.…”

Section: Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five perils of the impact agenda in higher education

McCowan¹

2018

London Review of Education

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The impact of higher education institutions on society has become the focus of significant policy attention in recent years, most prominently as part of research evaluation. This paper presents a theoretical exploration of the notion, identifying the key dimensions as source, form, trajectory, intensity, timescale and destination. While acknowledging the importance of porosity between universities and society, and the need to address critical contemporary challenges, five dangers of the impact agenda are highlighted: the normative dimension; the linear relationship; unpredictability; measurement; and instrumentalization. As a response to dominant conceptualizations, the paper proposes the notion of the generative intrinsic as a more robust basis on which to base the work of universities.

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Section: Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five perils of the impact agenda in higher education

McCowan¹

2018

London Review of Education

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“…(Spaapen et al 2013, p.4) The highlighted words in the various definitions above point out a central and common the idea that what is being sought is a diverse set of tangible benefits for society and the economy. However, this is not to say that there is, necessarily, agreement on the philosophical underpinnings, nor definition of impact (Penfield et al 2014;Greenhalgh et al 2016). While we do not intend to resolve that debate here, we do aim to point out that there is a common thread running through different definitions, and there are a corresponding set of methods and frameworks that have evolved to try and help researchers and policymakers understand impact.…”

Section: The Context For Assessing Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from the UK’s research impact assessment exercise: a case study of a retrospective impact assessment exercise and questions for the future

2017

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National governments spend significant amounts of money supporting public research. However, in an era where the international economic climate has led to budget cuts, policymakers increasingly are looking to justify the returns from public investments, including in science and innovation. The so-called 'impact agenda' which has emerged in many countries around the world is part of this response; an attempt to understand and articulate for the public what benefits arise from the research that is funded. The United Kingdom is the most progressed in implementing this agenda and in 2014 the national research assessment exercise, the Research Excellence Framework, for the first time included the assessment of research impact as a component. For the first time within a dual funding system, funding would be awarded not only on the basis of the academic quality of research, but also on the wider impacts of that research. In this paper we outline the context and approach taken by the UK government, along with some of the core challenges that exist in implementing such an exercise. We then synthesise, together for the first time, the results of the only two national evaluations of the exercise and offer reflections for future exercises both in the UK and internationally.

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“…There are a number of well-established challenges in assessing the impact from research, principally the interrelated concerns of the sometimes long time lags between research and impact, the problems of attribution of research to impact and the difficulties in providing evidence of the links between research and impact (Bornmann, 2013;Penfield et al, 2014;Greenhalgh et al, 2016). These issues are further complicated by the complex, and potentially non-linear and non-sequential relationship between research and impact.…”

Section: History and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing (for) impact: future assessment of the societal impact of research

Hill¹

2016

Palgrave Commun

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National research assessments play a role in providing accountability-to funders, government and civil society-for the activities of largely autonomous research systems. Increasingly, an element of such assessments is the assessment of societal impact. In this article, I review the development of impact assessment, with a focus on the UK's Research Excellence Framework, and consider implications and challenges for the future. Notwithstanding these challenges, I further argue that the assessment of societal impact needs to become a more central aspect of research evaluation. This article is published as part of a collection on the future of research assessment.

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Assessment, evaluations, and definitions of research impact: A review

Cited by 432 publications

References 8 publications

Five perils of the impact agenda in higher education

Five perils of the impact agenda in higher education

Learning from the UK’s research impact assessment exercise: a case study of a retrospective impact assessment exercise and questions for the future

Assessing (for) impact: future assessment of the societal impact of research

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