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RoRI Announces Partners and First Wave of Projects

RoRI Announces Partners and First Wave of Projects

Following an intense period of consultation and co-design, we are excited to unveil our first wave of projects, which will run for the remainder of RoRI's pilot phase (until autumn 2021). We are also delighted to announce our partners, who will be collaborating in the design and delivery of these projects. 

Impact factor volatility due to a single paper: A comprehensive analysis

Impact factor volatility due to a single paper: A comprehensive analysis

This publication shows how a single paper affects the impact factor (IF) of a journal by analyzing data from 3,088,511 papers published in 11639 journals in the 2017 Journal Citation Reports of Clarivate Analytics.

Take Action - #ShutDownAcademia #ShutDownSTEM

Take Action - #ShutDownAcademia #ShutDownSTEM

Wednesday June 10 has been designated a day of action in STEM and in academia in support of Black lives. Non-Black, non-Indigenous people in STEM and academia are invited to dedicate their working hours to formulating a plan of ACTION for how to join the struggle to ensure that Black lives matter.

Shadow Minister Says REF 'serves No Purpose' - Research Professional News

Shadow Minister Says REF 'serves No Purpose' - Research Professional News

Emma Hardy says there will be no return to 'business as usual' after Covid-19 crisis. 

Normal Versus Extraordinary Societal Impact: How to Understand, Evaluate, and Improve Research Activities in Their Relations to Society?

Normal Versus Extraordinary Societal Impact: How to Understand, Evaluate, and Improve Research Activities in Their Relations to Society?

How can science–society relations be better understood, evaluated, and improved by focusing on the organizations that typically interact in a specific domain of research.

Impact 'Agenda' Or Impact 'Phantom'? 

Impact 'Agenda' Or Impact 'Phantom'? 

Responding to an emerging debate around the changing nature of the impact agenda in the UK, the author argues that the current moment presents an opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of previous regimes of incentivising and assessing impact.

Are Altmetrics Able to Measure Societal Impact in a Similar Way to Peer Review?

Are Altmetrics Able to Measure Societal Impact in a Similar Way to Peer Review?

Altmetrics have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of scholarly communication, although the value they indicate is contested. A recent study examined the relationship of peer review, altmetrics, and bibliometric analyses with societal and academic impact. Drawing on evidence from REF2014 submissions, it argues altmetrics may provide evidence for wider non-academic debates, but correlate poorly with peer review assessments of societal impact.

Physics Worth More to EU Economy Than Retail and Financial Services

Physics Worth More to EU Economy Than Retail and Financial Services

Industries that rely on physics expertise contribute more to the EU economy than financial services or retail, according to a new study.

Tale of the Converted: How Complex Social Problems Have Made Me Question the Use of Data in Driving Impact

Tale of the Converted: How Complex Social Problems Have Made Me Question the Use of Data in Driving Impact

In practice the way in which research impacts and influences policy and society is often thought to be a rational, ordered and linear process. Whilst this might represent a ‘common sense’ understanding of research impact, this post reflects on how upending the primacy of data and embracing complexity can lead to a more nuanced and effective understanding of research impact. 

Meet the Research Impact Canvas

Meet the Research Impact Canvas

Fecher and Kobsda introduce the Research Impact Canvas - a structured guide to plan science communication activities.

Can We Assess the Wider Effects of Public Engagement?

Can We Assess the Wider Effects of Public Engagement?

The extent to which researchers can assess the impact of their public engagement is often under-analysed and limited to success stories. Drawing on the example of development aid, it is argued that we need to widen the parameters for assessing public engagement.

Scientists Must Act on Our Own Warnings to Humanity

Scientists Must Act on Our Own Warnings to Humanity

We face interconnected planetary emergencies threatening our climate and ecosystems. Scientists should join civil disobedience movements to fight these unprecedented crises.

Trust and Mistrust in Americans' Views of Scientific Experts

Trust and Mistrust in Americans' Views of Scientific Experts

Public confidence in scientists is on the upswing, and six-in-ten Americans say scientists should play an active role in policy debates about scientific issues, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Significant Economic Benefits? Enhancing the Impact of Open Science for Knowledge Users

Significant Economic Benefits? Enhancing the Impact of Open Science for Knowledge Users

In this post it is discussed how open research can lead to economic benefits. The author suggests that future open research policies should focus on developing research discovery, translation and the capacity for research utilisation outside of the academy.

Universities Earned Just $75 Million from IP in 2017, but Spent $5.7 Billion on R&D

Universities Earned Just $75 Million from IP in 2017, but Spent $5.7 Billion on R&D

Canada’s top universities and research institutes spent $5.7 billion on research and development (R&D), but generated less than $75 million from licensing their innovations in 2017. That’s an average return on investment of 1.3 per cent.

New Center Aims to Create a More Transparent Approach to Research Assessment

New Center Aims to Create a More Transparent Approach to Research Assessment

At Elsevier's International Center for the Study of Research, experts will examine research using metrics and other qualitative and quantitative methods. 

Rethinking Impact Factors: New Pathways in Journal Metrics

Rethinking Impact Factors: New Pathways in Journal Metrics

Diversity, transparency, and reliability are essential principles to ensure that a proliferation of metrics does not distort the scholarly communication system, but leads to more granular and transparent assessments

Ten Ways Times Higher Education Can Change the Story

Ten Ways Times Higher Education Can Change the Story

By Rob Cuthbert Tips from an editor on how Times Higher Education can shift the negative perceptions of people in higher education to reassert its value to the sector. Times Higher Educat…

The "Impact" of the Journal Impact Factor in the Review, Tenure, and Promotion Process

The "Impact" of the Journal Impact Factor in the Review, Tenure, and Promotion Process

The Journal Impact Factor has been widely critiqued as a measure of individual academic performance. However, it is unclear whether these criticisms and high profile declarations, such as DORA, have led to significant cultural change.