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Guide to using Twitter in university research, teaching, and impact activities
Podcasts on measuring your impact, the REF, and academic communication
Maximizing the impacts of your research: A handbook for social scientists
THE News
Category Archives: Impact
Jun 18 2013
Academics may not be celebrities, but their careful research is improving public policy
2 CommentsLast week Phillip Blond proposed a simplistic solution to the problem of why academics are failing to make policy impacts: less evidence, more “big ideas”. Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin find substantial flaws in this reasoning. Academics are in fact, … Continue reading
Posted by: June 18, 2013
Tagged with: Big Idea, Phillip Blond
Jun 13 2013
How to work with academics for media folks
Leave a commentThere is a lot to gain from both sides if media and academia build more bridges, but Tressie McMillan Cottom finds the two working cultures are shaped by very different incentives and priorities which can cause unnecessary friction. Provided here is a helpful … Continue reading
Posted by: June 13, 2013
Tagged with: media
Jun 12 2013
Developing indicators of the impact of scholarly communication is a massive technical challenge – but it’s also much simpler than that
6 CommentsConversations 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 … Continue reading
Posted by: June 12, 2013
Tagged with: altmetrics
Jun 5 2013
Making research work as a public good requires a mutually reinforcing process of engagement
1 CommentResearch and public engagement operate in a wider social environment. More information or better dissemination will not simply make social problems go away. Leah Bassel suggests embedding research into mutually reinforcing partnerships with communities facing inequality and misrepresentation as an invigorating approach … Continue reading
Posted by: June 5, 2013
Tagged with: public engagement, public good
May 30 2013
Live dance performance as a means to re-analyze and re-present social science exposes differing relationships to data
Comments OffLooking to make public two qualitative social science data-sets on women’s experiences, Elizabeth Sharp collaborated with choreographers to re-analyze and re-present the data through live dance performance. Preliminary findings indicate the performance stimulated thought and greater awareness about cultural expectations related to femininity, … Continue reading
Posted by: May 30, 2013
Tagged with: Ordinary Wars, performance, public engagement, transdisciplinary research
May 28 2013
How is technology disrupting traditional academic practice? A look back at the NetworkED series
1 CommentThe LSE’s Centre for Learning Technology looks ahead to Anne-Wil Harzing’s talk on the impact of citation analysis and Sonja Grussendorf reflects on the course of the seminar series which has looked at how technological developments, particularly the internet, have led … Continue reading
Posted by: May 28, 2013
Tagged with: Publish or Perish
May 23 2013
Clear articulation of scholarly contribution is essential in academic writing
2 CommentsComprehensible writing relies on the strength of authorial voice, but voice remains a bewilderingly nebulous concept. Rachael Cayley recommends shifting from discussing voice to discussing contribution. The clear articulation of the contribution of one’s work to a body of research will ultimately strengthen voice. Cayley outlines … Continue reading
Posted by: May 23, 2013
Tagged with: academic writing
May 20 2013
Investing in higher education, including the social sciences, would promote growth in Britain
5 CommentsPaul Whiteley points out that there is no evidence that supports the argument that STEM subjects provide an additional boost to growth on top of investments in universities in general. Despite higher than average enrolment in sciences, for instance, Britain has lower … Continue reading
Posted by: May 20, 2013
Tagged with: OECD, research investment
May 13 2013
The longstanding culture in the social sciences of making data accessible is one to value
Comments OffEvidence-based social policy depends on access to rich supplies of high-quality data. But how can we create, curate, enrich and reuse data already collected by government departments and researchers? James Nazroo and Matthew Woollard of the UK Data Service explore … Continue reading
Posted by: May 13, 2013
Tagged with: data sharing
May 7 2013
Absence of impact used to be the fashionable thing to claim
Comments OffAmidst the time-consuming intensity of compiling submissions for the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Athene Donald reflects on how the necessity of demonstrating research impact has been understood over the years. While there are even identifiable shifts from 2008′s RAE assessment, more … Continue reading
Posted by: May 7, 2013
