Quantifying the impact and relevance of scientific research

William J. Sutherland; David Goulson; Simon G. Potts; Lynn V. Dicks

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027537

Quantifying the impact and relevance of scientific research

William J. Sutherland, David Goulson, Simon G. Potts, Lynn V. Dicks

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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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.

Original language	English
Article number	e27537
Journal	PLoS One
Volume	6
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027537
Publication status	Published - 16 Nov 2011

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10.1371/journal.pone.0027537Licence: CC BY

Published manuscript
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.
Final published version, 496 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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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.",

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