Research impact for Education: a self-help guide

Grant bodies, research institutions and individuals use multiple research management and analytics services, and databases to collect data on evidence of research impact. They offers valuable features to help you successfully integrate and aggregate the data about your author and research publication impact.

These data sources are most effective and accurate once the researcher has 'owned' their researcher profiles. Book in a research consultation if you would like more information. One very important step is setting up your ORCID and having it linked in Minerva Elements.

Different data-sources integrates different indicators and metrics, which measures different aspects of research performance, productivity and quality. Use Metrics Toolkit if you find this very confusing or speak to your librarian and peers with some experience in stating their research impact and value for grant applications or for promotion applications.

Tips for researchers: 

1. Keep record of all the evidence about the impact of your research and the attention to your research. Use a table for documentation. This will save you lots of time later on when you suddenly need all of this information. 
2. Periodically, keep your research profiles and your researcher identifiers up-to-date and save time later.
3. Keep your publications up-to-date in Minerva Elements. Add this information when your manuscripts are accepted for publication. Doing this and linking your research profiles such as ORCID, Scopus Author Identifier and ResearcherID, provides access to research performance data in Minerva Elements.

Always speak to the MERI Research Grants officer and your direct supervisor for peer support with the preparation of your grant application.

Also, make a point of viewing some of the successful previous grants in the University of Melbourne Research Grants library

Consult the Academic Careers @ Melbourne website for information regarding criteria used to benchmark staff performance. 

There are many times that researchers need to to illustrate their research performance.

Research performance encompasses both research productivity and research quality. Research institutions and researchers often try to demonstrate research performance by using metrics. However, research metrics alone is not sufficient to describe performance. Expert opinion should be added to demonstrate performance.

• Aim to always use qualitative and quantitative inputs together to produce quality and responsible research evaluations.
• Also aim to use more than one research metric together where possible.

Researchers that need to find information about which metrics to choose from and include into their grant applications or academic promotion applications or for similar exercises can use the Metrics Toolkit to help inform their choice. In addition, also discuss this with your supervisor or a peer.

The Metrics Toolkit provides evidence-based information about research metrics across disciplines, including how each metric is calculated, where you can find it, and how each should (and should not) be applied.  You’ll also find examples of how to use metrics in grant applications, CVs, and promotion dossiers.