Measuring Research Impact

Research impact is the extent to which a publication, a researcher's work or a research group's work have been built upon by other researchers. It can also be an effect on or benefit to society beyond the academic world. Identifying research impact can help researchers and institutions to assess the quality of research and to provide accountability for future planning.

Research impact can be measured in various ways, including qualitative methods such as peer review and expert survey; and quantitative methods such as publication analysis and citation tracking.

This guide will focus on the use of publication and citation data, which are easily accessible, to measure the impact of research. It should be noted, however, that all calculation methods have limitations and the results generated by these methods should be interpreted with cautions.