Quantifying the impact and relevance of scientific research

Sutherland, William J., Goulson, David, Potts, Simon G. and Dicks, Lynn V. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8304-4468 (2011) Quantifying the impact and relevance of scientific research. PLoS One, 6 (11). ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

Qualitative and quantitative methods are being developed to measure the impacts of research on society, but they suffer from serious drawbacks associated with linking a piece of research to its subsequent impacts. We have developed a method to derive impact scores for individual research publications according to their contribution to answering questions of quantified importance to end users of research. To demonstrate the approach, here we evaluate the impacts of research into means of conserving wild bee populations in the UK. For published papers, there is a weak positive correlation between our impact score and the impact factor of the journal. The process identifies publications that provide high quality evidence relating to issues of strong concern. It can also be used to set future research agendas.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright 2011 Sutherland et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	10 Oct 2016 14:00
Last Modified:	24 May 2023 15:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/60812
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0027537

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