140 likes | 230 Views
Impact – is there a role for the publisher? Dr Martyn Lawrence Senior Publisher E: mlawrence@emeraldinsight.com. Can publishers have an impact?. Publishers should be contributing to the debate and helping to demonstrate impact What has Emerald already done?
E N D
Impact – is there a role for the publisher? Dr Martyn Lawrence Senior Publisher E: mlawrence@emeraldinsight.com
Can publishers have an impact? Publishers should be contributing to the debate and helping to demonstrate impact What has Emerald already done? We suggest a tentative framework by which impact can be measured and assessed
Why does Emerald care about impact? • Impact is now central to REF, CAGS, AACSB, EFMD etc • Emerald has a long-standing Publishing Philosophy: - to bridge the gap between theory and practice - to publish research underpinned by rigour & relevance - to publish ‘research you can use’ • This is not a new/UK-centric/commercial approach! • Surely scholars in business and management have an obligation to demonstrate the impact of their research on … businesses and managers?
Ongoing Emerald initiatives • Publishing workshops • Improve title, share research, better keywords • Research awards • Social impact, long-term impact, practical impact (plus other funding awards) • Structured abstracts • Research/practical/social implications of paper • Emerald Management First • Repackaged research for practitioners
Ongoing Emerald initiatives • Publishing workshops • Improve title, share research, better keywords • Research awards • Social impact, long-term impact, practical impact (plus other funding awards) • Structured abstracts • Research/practical/social implications of paper • Emerald Management First • Repackaged research for practitioners
Impact of research • Conventionally, impact is measured through citation • Emerald encourages authors to measure research impact on a much wider scale, using more than one variable
Citation is critical … but “The use of citation measures is perfectly understandable but also completely crazy. One of the easiest ways to get lots of citations is to be interestingly wrong.” Søren Holm, “A Theoria Round Table on Philosophy Publishing” (Theoria 77.2, 104-116, May 2011) “If I could get rid of the Impact Factor tomorrow, I would. I hate it… It totally distorts decision-making and it is a very, very bad influence on science” Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet (Impact Factor: 28.409)
Additional measures of quality? Even within the ‘knowledge’ segment, there are other indicators of quality: • number of downloads (non-‘star’ journals have high usage) • dissemination of journal (where it is read) • quality of the authors/editors • relevance of content and publishing ethos • links to societies/associations
Six Impact Zones Knowledge – scholarship which contributes to the body of knowledge and generates further research. Assessed by: citations, usage, peer recognition, self-stated research conclusions Teaching and learning – students and faculty are direct consumers of research. Assessed by: clarity of conclusions to aid learning, provision of case studies and teaching examples, usage statistics, course adoption/curricula change. Practice – business leaders, practitioners and consultants are all affected by the outcomes of research. Assessed by: university-business collaboration, consultancy application, implications for practice self-stated Public policy – state officials, politicians, decision makers in public bodies, institutions and charities draw on research to shape their policies. Assessed by: self-stated potential implications, subsequent policy revisions Society and environment – influencing CSR in industry, business and public policy and the incorporation of social/environmental values in research outputs.Assessed by: informing social policy, industry adoption, implications for society self-stated Economy – research which contributes to organization-level or macro-level wealth creation and business advancement. Assessed by: future economic savings, revenue increase, self-assessed business/economic impact.
Impact matrix – at its simplest, we assign a score 1-5 for each impact zone EXAMPLE: Orientation to ‘pure’ research and scholarship: EXAMPLE: Applied/action research Knowledge 5 Practice 1 Teaching & Learning 3 Policy 2 Society & Environment 2 Economic 0 Knowledge 2 Practice 5 Teaching & Learning 3 Policy 4 Society & Environment 4 Economic 4
The X Factor • Sometimes research will change, challenge or disrupt current thinking • Any quantitative matrix needs to remember the disruptive paper that may go uncited or unnoticed for years • But they are rare
Conclusion Publishers do have a role to play in demonstrating impact We are gathering comments and ideas from our colleagues – editors, reviewers, research directors, deans, funding bodies, assessment bodies – and overwhelmingly they support our initiatives Our impact matrix is a framework for discussion We plan to report on progress at conferences and in published ‘white papers’ If there is something we can do, please get in touch!