Research impact evaluation and academic discourse

Abstract

The introduction of ‘impact’ as an element of assessment constitutes a major change in the construction of research evaluation systems. While various protocols of impact evaluation exist, the most articulated one was implemented as part of the British Research Excellence Framework (REF). This paper investigates the nature and consequences of the rise of ‘research impact’ as an element of academic evaluation from the perspective of discourse. Drawing from linguistic pragmatics and Foucauldian discourse analysis, the study discusses shifts related to the so-called Impact Agenda on four stages, in chronological order: (1) the ‘problematization’ of the notion of ‘impact’, (2) the establishment of an ‘impact infrastructure’, (3) the consolidation of a new genre of writing–impact case study, and (4) academics’ positioning practices towards the notion of ‘impact’, theorized here as the triggering of new practices of ‘subjectivation’ of the academic self. The description of the basic functioning of the ‘discourse of impact’ is based on the analysis of two corpora: case studies submitted by a selected group of academics (linguists) to REF2014 (no = 78) and interviews (n = 25) with their authors. Linguistic pragmatics is particularly useful in analyzing linguistic aspects of the data, while Foucault’s theory helps draw together findings from two datasets in a broader analysis based on a governmentality framework. This approach allows for more general conclusions on the practices of governing (academic) subjects within evaluation contexts.

Creating discursive channels: generating and disseminating impactful research insights into the strategic sales enablement of retail technology

“…Marketing scholars must embrace the opportunity of producing directly translatable research insights with market and organisational impact (Wr oblewska, 2021). Moving beyond traditional academic impact outputs (e.g.…”

Methodological foundations of assessing research impact in business and management

“…There is some space for developing research into application-oriented methods needed in the different research environments of various countries. The British REF is undoubtedly considered to be the most known ex post assessment system of academic units at present, and it is also a model example for carrying out similar assessments in other countries, such as, e.g., Norway, Hong Kong and Poland (Wróblewska, 2021).…”

What Is the Research Impact of (The Ideal Of) Scientific Truth?

“…Such research ponders everything from: how to utilise impact for academic career advancement (e.g., Reed, 2018), improve co-production of knowledge (e.g., McCabe et al, 2021), streamline evaluation of research proposals (e.g., Allbutt & Irvine 2019), better promote their own discipline (e.g., Jones et al, 2021) or shape research agendas to be more impactful (e.g., Hicks & Holbrook, 2020), to only mention a few. Even when critical of the impact agenda, it is mostly parochial: in terms of the ability to accurately assess impact (e.g., Lauronen, 2020), questioning of what this does in terms of research ethics (e.g., Macfarlane, 2019), how impact claims differ epistemologically between science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects, and social sciences and humanities research (e.g., Bonaccorsi et al, 2021) or how the writing of case studies changes the relationship of researchers' to their research (e.g., Wróblewska, 2021). Only a few researchers make the leap and question the entire process of knowledge production (e.g., Shields & Watermeyer, 2020).…”