What does openness mean for research impact?
As a higher education professional working in research support, preparation for research assessment frameworks is part and parcel of the job. With the Research Excellence Framework (REF) rapidly approaching, my colleagues and I are ramping up our efforts to develop the ‘impact’ component of the submission. Impact for REF mainly involves the creation of subject specific case studies to show how our research has delivered benefits beyond the academy. These case studies are assessed by a panel of experts to help determine an institution’s research performance. The outcome of the REF process will ultimately inform the selective allocation of research funding and an institution’s position in various league tables.
REF: Impact is defined as an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.
Beyond REF, demonstrating the impact of academic research is becoming increasingly important. Every funding application submitted to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) must consider the future impact of research and demonstrate a clear plan to ensure that the project delivers benefit to society. The research councils argue that as a significant proportion of academic research is publicly funded, we must demonstrate the benefits of that investment. UKRI collectively invests £7 billion in research and innovation each year.
UKRI: Impact is the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy.
Given the increasing value placed on impact for funding, reputation and bench-marking, it’s safe to say that it’s never been more important to demonstrate the societal and economic benefits of academic research.
The pathway to impact
In the world of research impact, colleagues often refer to the ‘pathway to impact’, meaning the specific activities a researcher can undertake to ensure that the benefits of their research are realised. More often than not, a successful pathway to impact relies on the researcher being open about their findings and disseminating their results via appropriate channels. My participation in the ‘Open Knowledge and Higher Education’ module of the PGCert in Higher Education has caused me to reflect on what openness means in this context and how it can facilitate the impact of academic research.
Research projects don’t always begin with a specific impact goal in mind. On the contrary, benefits are often realised through serendipitous discovery. However, the current funding landscape dictates that researchers should proactively plan for impact and identify their beneficiaries or external stakeholders from project conception. If researchers are seeking potential partners to ensure their findings are used, they must identify communication channels to let the world know about their work. Importantly, communicating research findings to the outside world requires a degree of openness. In this context, being open relies on more than publication in an academic journal. The academic literature is of course, of great value and the bread and butter of researcher activity. However, I can’t help but dwell on the apparent inaccessibility of these journals and their potential to inhibit knowledge exchange and therefore impact if used as the sole mechanism for communication.
Barriers to openness
For me, the academic literature can present barriers to open research and prevent the wider public from accessing information concerning the latest discoveries. For example, most journals are hidden behind paywalls and require the payment of expensive subscription fees to access their content. It’s reported that even Harvard University, the world’s richest academic institution can no longer afford the vast cost of academic journal subscriptions. This is a controversial subject in it’s own right and is not only inhibitory for the general public but for other academics too. Generally, for huge research intensive institutions like the University of Manchester, this isn’t always a problem, but for smaller, less research focused institutions, access to certain journals may be restricted. An equally troubling concern for me is language. By their very nature, academic articles are written for academic audiences, meaning that the average person on the street would have little chance at beginning to understand the information they present. There have even been reports to suggest that academic papers are a tougher read than some from the nineteenth century, particularly within scientific disciplines. This has prompted some publishers to share guidance on the best approaches to read scientific papers.
Open communication for impact
The above points have caused me to question what is required from open research to facilitate non-academic impact or benefit. Crucially, non-academic stakeholders must informed, or even better, engaged with the research. This is the essential first step on the pathway to impact. A number of ideas were presented during the ‘Open Knowledge and Higher Education’ module, with presentation by Lucy May (Scholarly Communications Librarian) and information from the ‘Open Research Forum’ standing out in particular. I found myself frantically scribbling during Lucy’s talk, noting down her strategies for openness in research. The following ideas, I think, could be particularly transformative for researchers to communicate with their stakeholders and therefore develop their pathway to impact:
1. Think about your audience — It is essential for researchers to identify their impact beneficiaries. In other words, they should pinpoint the specific individuals/groups/communities outside of the academy that will actually use their research. Once researchers have identified their stakeholders, they can tailor their publication strategy accordingly.
2. Remove barriers — I mentioned paywall issues and language barriers previously. This is a particularly important point, so worth mentioning twice! Fortunately, there seems to be a huge buzz around open research, with many funders mandating open access publishing. However, that’s only part of the battle. The average person would have little idea how to interpret the research findings discussed in academic research outputs. Therefore, to engage non-academic audiences, summaries should be written in plain English and disseminated via channels that potential beneficiaries will have access to.
3. Don’t assume people will find your research — It’s a huge amount of work to write an academic paper but final publication is not the end of the story. To communicate with non-academic audiences, researchers are encouraged to write blogs, use social media and other non-traditional publication platforms to let the world know about their work. In turn, this offers researchers an opportunity to raise their profile and to drive traffic to their publications, thereby increasing readership and citation count. There are a number of initiatives to which the University of Manchester subscribes to help researchers do just that, for example, Kudos and The Conversation.
The information provided by Lucy and colleagues and the discussion that followed has cemented the importance of alternative publication strategies and approaches to knowledge exchange to deliver non-academic impact from research. So, has this information influenced my professional practice? In short, yes! A significant part of my role is to work with early career researchers to help them identify opportunities to deliver impact from their work. The question I’m asked most often by researchers is: “But what about blue skies research? How can I communicate with potential stakeholders?” The strategies highlighted throughout the discussion on this topic have helped shaped my answer to this question and have been incorporated into training materials and consultations with great success!
