Research Impact

Researchers and academic staff are often asked to demonstrate the impact of their research in applications for academic promotions, grants and in many other contexts.  

The University Library has developed a suite of discipline specific guides to assist researchers with using free and subscription tools to determine impact and engagement metrics of their research outputs such as journal articles.

The selection of the most appropriate metrics and/or the optimum method of presenting those metrics is dependent on the discipline, the purpose, the context, the specific research being evaluated, and so on.  

The following are all resources that should be consulted to assist in deciding which metrics are appropriate for the specific purpose, and how to use those metrics to demonstrate research impact and engagement:

• Australian Research Council Grants: The ARC funds research and researchers under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP).
• National Health and Medical Research Council: Information on applying for all NHMRC funding schemes.
• Academic Careers @ Melbourne: Information and resources to support academic career development at the University of Melbourne.
• University of Melbourne Research Impact & Engagement  (UoM login required)
• Overview of Research Metrics (video 4:34 min.). An overview of research metrics and tools available to researchers at University of Melbourne
• Research impact and engagement: a newbies guide to finding evidence for grants, reporting, promotions, etc. A video recording of a presentation by library staff, January 2022.

Further information

The use of metrics to demonstrate research impact or to compare researchers or research publications is a topic that has been debated much in recent years.The following websites and articles are recommended for further information and discussion:

• Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics
• San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
• Davis, P. (2017, May 15). Citation performance indicators – a very short introduction.

An online platform that can help you capture and report on research impact and engagement for your projects.

ImpactTracker

Effective management of research outputs will save time, make dissemination easier and more effective, and attract more scholarly and social media attention.  

View the University of Melbourne Research Outputs website for further information and processes.

ARC grant applications

From December 2018 the ARC changed the process for including research outputs on grant applications.

Starting from the Discovery Projects 2020 scheme, round 1, research outputs must first be added to an applicant’s ARC Research Management System (RMS)  profile before they can be selected for inclusion on an application. 

For more information and instructions visit Staff Hub: ARC Grant Applications 

What is Minerva Access?

Minerva Access is the University of Melbourne's Institutional Repository. It aims to collect, preserve, and showcase the intellectual output of staff and students of the University of Melbourne for a global audience. 

• Minerva Access is indexed by Google Scholar, and other search engines, e.g.  National Library of Australia's Trove, and OAIster  
• Minerva Access provides statistics on accessions by country/month
• Minerva Access provides permanent URL for works even if you leave the university – use for CVs, grants
• Minerva Access can provide research impact metrics (see example below)

University of Melbourne's researchers are encouraged to deposit their research outputs into Minerva Access via Elements, which is fully integrated with Minerva Access.  Information including a short video on how to do this can be found here.

Links

• Minerva Access
• Minerva Access - email for technical information and enquiries

Use Elements to quickly obtain research impact metrics

Your Elements profile is a quick and easy way to obtain a current h-index and citation counts. 

Note: the validity of the Elements metrics is dependent on your profile being up to date and correctly linked to ORCID, Scopus and Web of Science:

Example below: H index from Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions available on profile homepage:

Example below: click on Research Outputs > Title of output > Metrics tab: 

Reference management programs (also known as citation managers or bibliographic management software) provide many useful features that can help you with your research such as:

• Storing and organising your references, and

• Generating citations and bibliographies in the style you prefer.

As there are a number of different programs available it is important to choose the one that suits your needs. The University of Melbourne has licensed access to: EndNote and EndNote Online and also actively supports Zotero.

This guide gives information on these and other programs available and the issues you should consider when selecting a program:

Please note: it is not compulsory to use any of these programs. If you have only basic computer skills you may be better off managing your references using traditional means

View the Researcher Profiles, Identifiers & Social Networks guide

View the Altmetrics guide

There are other indicators of research quality or academic esteem. The library recommends that researchers keep a portfolio or notebook listing activity, date, and relevance to your research. These alternative indicators could include:

• Awards and Prizes

• Conference presentations, keynotes, and publications

• Editorships of journals, books, and other publications.

• Holdings of edited, authored or contributed to books in libraries.  Possible source: WorldCat

• International engagement and collaboration

• Influence on industry/government/public policy/community/cultural organisations

• Membership of Learned Academy

• Membership of Statutory Committee

• Partnerships with other institutions, research groups, or industry.

• Patents

• Previous successful grant applications and completed research projects.

• Registered Designs

• Research Commercialisation Income

• Research Fellowships