0000001325 00000 n There is a distinction between academic impact understood as the intellectual contribution to ones field of study within academia and external socio-economic impact beyond academia. Cb)5. 0000011201 00000 n For systems to be able to capture a full range of systems, definitions and categories of impact need to be determined that can be incorporated into system development. The transfer of information electronically can be traced and reviewed to provide data on where and to whom research findings are going. There are areas of basic research where the impacts are so far removed from the research or are impractical to demonstrate; in these cases, it might be prudent to accept the limitations of impact assessment, and provide the potential for exclusion in appropriate circumstances. Researchers were asked to evidence the economic, societal, environmental, and cultural impact of their research within broad categories, which were then verified by an expert panel (Duryea et al. The most appropriate type of evaluation will vary according to the stakeholder whom we are wishing to inform. Inform funding. An empirical research report written in American Psychological Association (APA) style always includes a written . The criteria for assessment were also supported by a model developed by Brunel for measurement of impact that used similar measures defined as depth and spread. Worth refers to extrinsic value to those outside the . Evidence of academic impact may be derived through various bibliometric methods, one example of which is the H index, which has incorporated factors such as the number of publications and citations. Organizations may be interested in reviewing and assessing research impact for one or more of the aforementioned purposes and this will influence the way in which evaluation is approached. The RQF was developed to demonstrate and justify public expenditure on research, and as part of this framework, a pilot assessment was undertaken by the Australian Technology Network. The introduction of impact assessments with the requirement to collate evidence retrospectively poses difficulties because evidence, measurements, and baselines have, in many cases, not been collected and may no longer be available. The RQF pioneered the case study approach to assessing research impact; however, with a change in government in 2007, this framework was never implemented in Australia, although it has since been taken up and adapted for the UK REF. While looking forward, we will be able to reduce this problem in the future, identifying, capturing, and storing the evidence in such a way that it can be used in the decades to come is a difficulty that we will need to tackle. It incorporates both academic outputs and wider societal benefits (Donovan and Hanney 2011) to assess outcomes of health sciences research. Concerns over how to attribute impacts have been raised many times (The Allen Consulting Group 2005; Duryea et al. Its objective is to evaluate programs, improve program effectiveness, and influence programming decisions. Gathering evidence of the links between research and impact is not only a challenge where that evidence is lacking. This work was supported by Jisc [DIINN10]. To be considered for inclusion within the REF, impact must be underpinned by research that took place between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2013, with impact occurring during an assessment window from 1 January 2008 to 31 July 2013. The process of evaluation involves figuring out how well the goals have been accomplished. A comprehensive assessment of impact itself is not undertaken with SIAMPI, which make it a less-suitable method where showcasing the benefits of research is desirable or where this justification of funding based on impact is required. In the UK, more sophisticated assessments of impact incorporating wider socio-economic benefits were first investigated within the fields of Biomedical and Health Sciences (Grant 2006), an area of research that wanted to be able to justify the significant investment it received. 2007) who concluded that the researchers and case studies could provide enough qualitative and quantitative evidence for reviewers to assess the impact arising from their research (Duryea et al. 0000012122 00000 n In the UK, evidence and research impacts will be assessed for the REF within research disciplines. The Author 2013. This report, prepared by one of the evaluation team members (Richard Flaman), presents a non-exhaustive review definitions of primarily decentralization, and to a lesser extent decentralization as linked to local governance. In the UK, evaluation of academic and broader socio-economic impact takes place separately. %PDF-1.4 % An alternative approach was suggested for the RQF in Australia, where it was proposed that types of impact be compared rather than impact from specific disciplines. While the case study is a useful way of showcasing impact, its limitations must be understood if we are to use this for evaluation purposes. The transition to routine capture of impact data not only requires the development of tools and systems to help with implementation but also a cultural change to develop practices, currently undertaken by a few to be incorporated as standard behaviour among researchers and universities. Recommendations from the REF pilot were that the panel should be able to extend the time frame where appropriate; this, however, poses difficult decisions when submitting a case study to the REF as to what the view of the panel will be and whether if deemed inappropriate this will render the case study unclassified. 0000006922 00000 n While aspects of impact can be adequately interpreted using metrics, narratives, and other evidence, the mixed-method case study approach is an excellent means of pulling all available information, data, and evidence together, allowing a comprehensive summary of the impact within context. 1. From the outset, we note that the understanding of the term impact differs between users and audiences. As Donovan (2011) comments, Impact is a strong weapon for making an evidence based case to governments for enhanced research support. Explain. Providing advice and guidance within specific disciplines is undoubtedly helpful. Despite many attempts to replace it, no alternative definition has . In undertaking excellent research, we anticipate that great things will come and as such one of the fundamental reasons for undertaking research is that we will generate and transform knowledge that will benefit society as a whole. 0000001862 00000 n One notable definition is provided by Scriven (1991) and later adopted by the American Evaluation Association (): "Evaluation is the systematic process to determine merit, worth, value, or . An evaluation essay or report is a type of argument that provides evidence to justify a writer's opinions about a subject. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of 3D rendering of the mandibular condylar region obtained from different semi-automatic segmentation methodology. Impact assessments raise concerns over the steer of research towards disciplines and topics in which impact is more easily evidenced and that provide economic impacts that could subsequently lead to a devaluation of blue skies research. 0000008591 00000 n SIAMPI is based on the widely held assumption that interactions between researchers and stakeholder are an important pre-requisite to achieving impact (Donovan 2011; Hughes and Martin 2012; Spaapen et al. They aim to enable the instructors to determine how much the learners have understood what the teacher has taught in the class and how much they can apply the knowledge of what has been taught in the class as well. Here we outline a few of the most notable models that demonstrate the contrast in approaches available. For example, following the discovery of a new potential drug, preclinical work is required, followed by Phase 1, 2, and 3 trials, and then regulatory approval is granted before the drug is used to deliver potential health benefits. It is very important to make sure people who have contributed to a paper, are given credit as authors. This is recognized as being particularly problematic within the social sciences where informing policy is a likely impact of research. The origin is from the Latin term 'valere' meaning "be strong, be well; be of value, or be worth". HEFCE indicated that impact should merit a 25% weighting within the REF (REF2014 2011b); however, this has been reduced for the 2014 REF to 20%, perhaps as a result of feedback and lobbying, for example, from the Russell Group and Million + group of Universities who called for impact to count for 15% (Russell Group 2009; Jump 2011) and following guidance from the expert panels undertaking the pilot exercise who suggested that during the 2014 REF, impact assessment would be in a developmental phase and that a lower weighting for impact would be appropriate with the expectation that this would be increased in subsequent assessments (REF2014 2010). Why should this be the case? These techniques have the potential to provide a transformation in data capture and impact assessment (Jones and Grant 2013). Authors from Asia, Europe, and Latin America provide a series of in-depth investigations into how concepts of . Clearly the impact of thalidomide would have been viewed very differently in the 1950s compared with the 1960s or today. Research findings including outputs (e.g., presentations and publications), Communications and interactions with stakeholders and the wider public (emails, visits, workshops, media publicity, etc), Feedback from stakeholders and communication summaries (e.g., testimonials and altmetrics), Research developments (based on stakeholder input and discussions), Outcomes (e.g., commercial and cultural, citations), Impacts (changes, e.g., behavioural and economic). The Value of Public Sector R&D, Assessing impacts of higher education systems, National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, Through a Glass, Darkly: Measuring the Social Value of Universities, Describing the Impact of Health Research: A Research Impact Framework, LSE Public Policy Group. Enhancing Impact. 0000002868 00000 n Differences between these two assessments include the removal of indicators of esteem and the addition of assessment of socio-economic research impact. SIAMPI has been used within the Netherlands Institute for health Services Research (SIAMPI n.d.). This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration transforms knowledge.. Productive interactions, which can perhaps be viewed as instances of knowledge exchange, are widely valued and supported internationally as mechanisms for enabling impact and are often supported financially for example by Canadas Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which aims to support knowledge exchange (financially) with a view to enabling long-term impact. Different authors have different notions of educational evaluation. We will focus attention towards generating results that enable boxes to be ticked rather than delivering real value for money and innovative research. We suggest that developing systems that focus on recording impact information alone will not provide all that is required to link research to ensuing events and impacts, systems require the capacity to capture any interactions between researchers, the institution, and external stakeholders and link these with research findings and outputs or interim impacts to provide a network of data. 0000002318 00000 n A collation of several indicators of impact may be enough to convince that an impact has taken place. Other approaches to impact evaluation such as contribution analysis, process tracing, qualitative comparative analysis, and theory-based evaluation designs (e.g., Stern, Stame, Mayne, Forss, & Befani, 2012) do not necessarily employ explicit counterfactual logic for causal inference and do not introduce observation-based definitions. A discussion on the benefits and drawbacks of a range of evaluation tools (bibliometrics, economic rate of return, peer review, case study, logic modelling, and benchmarking) can be found in the article by Grant (2006). evaluation practice and systems that go beyond the criteria and their definitions. Narratives can be used to describe impact; the use of narratives enables a story to be told and the impact to be placed in context and can make good use of qualitative information. What indicators, evidence, and impacts need to be captured within developing systems. HEIs overview. It is therefore in an institutions interest to have a process by which all the necessary information is captured to enable a story to be developed in the absence of a researcher who may have left the employment of the institution. In the UK, there have been several Jisc-funded projects in recent years to develop systems capable of storing research information, for example, MICE (Measuring Impacts Under CERIF), UK Research Information Shared Service, and Integrated Research Input and Output System, all based on the CERIF standard. Here is a sampling of the definitions you will see: Mirriam-Webster Dictionary Definition of Assessment: The action or an instance of assessing, appraisal . What are the challenges associated with understanding and evaluating research impact? A Review of International Practice, HM Treasury, Department for Education and Skills, Department of Trade and Industry, Yes, Research can Inform Health Policy; But can we Bridge the Do-Knowing its been Done Gap?, Council for Industry and Higher Education, UK Innovation Research Centre. The case study of the Research Information System of the European Research Council, E-Infrastructures for Research and Innovation: Linking Information Systems to Improve Scientific Knowledge, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Current Research Information Systems, (June 69, 2012), pp. If knowledge exchange events could be captured, for example, electronically as they occur or automatically if flagged from an electronic calendar or a diary, then far more of these events could be recorded with relative ease. The ability to write a persuasive well-evidenced case study may influence the assessment of impact. In designing systems and tools for collating data related to impact, it is important to consider who will populate the database and ensure that the time and capability required for capture of information is considered. The Payback Framework has been adopted internationally, largely within the health sector, by organizations such as the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Dutch Public Health Authority, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Welfare Bureau in Hong Kong (Bernstein et al. For more extensive reviews of the Payback Framework, see Davies et al. 0000007223 00000 n Times Higher Education, Assessing the Impact of Social Science Research: Conceptual, Methodological and Practical Issues, A Profile of Federal-Grant Administrative Burden Among Federal Demonstration Partnership Faculty, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, The Australian Research Quality Framework: A live experiment in capturing the social, economic, environmental and cultural returns of publicly funded research, Reforming the Evaluation of Research. HEFCE developed an initial methodology that was then tested through a pilot exercise. The growing trend for accountability within the university system is not limited to research and is mirrored in assessments of teaching quality, which now feed into evaluation of universities to ensure fee-paying students satisfaction. 0000348082 00000 n Evaluative research is a type of research used to evaluate a product or concept, and collect data to help improve your solution. According to Hanna- " The process of gathering and interpreted evidence changes in the behavior of all students as they progress through school is called evaluation". (2011) Maximising the Impacts of Your Research: A Handbook for Social Scientists (Pubd online) <, Lets Make Science Metrics More Scientific, Measuring Impact Under CERIF (MICE) Project Blog, Information systems of research funding agencies in the era of the Big Data. Decker et al. 3. However, the Achilles heel of any such attempt, as critics suggest, is the creation of a system that rewards what it can measure and codify, with the knock-on effect of directing research projects to deliver within the measures and categories that reward. The understanding of the term impact varies considerably and as such the objectives of an impact assessment need to be thoroughly understood before evidence is collated. Prague, Czech Republic, Health ResearchMaking an Impact. The Oxford English Dictionary defines impact as a 'Marked effect or influence', this is clearly a very broad definition. The main risks associated with the use of standardized metrics are that, The full impact will not be realized, as we focus on easily quantifiable indicators. What are the challenges associated with understanding and evaluating research impact? While assessments are often equated with traditional testsespecially the standardized tests developed by testing companies and administered to large populations . A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. The authors propose a new definition for measurement process based on the identification of the type of measurand and other metrological elements at each measurement process identified. (2006) on the impact arising from health research. It is important to emphasize that Not everyone within the higher education sector itself is convinced that evaluation of higher education activity is a worthwhile task (Kelly and McNicoll 2011). The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. 8. Impact can be temporary or long-lasting. This is a metric that has been used within the charitable sector (Berg and Mnsson 2011) and also features as evidence in the REF guidance for panel D (REF2014 2012). For example, the development of a spin out can take place in a very short period, whereas it took around 30 years from the discovery of DNA before technology was developed to enable DNA fingerprinting. There is . What indicators, evidence, and impacts need to be captured within developing systems? Definition of Assessment & Evaluation in Education by Different Authors with Its Characteristics, Evaluation is the collection, analysis and interpretation of information about any aspect of a programme of education, as part of a recognised process of judging its effectiveness, its efficiency and any other outcomes it may have., 2.
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