New Documents
Assessing
the impact of social science research: conceptual, methodological and
practical issues A background discussion paper
for ESRC Symposium on Assessing Non-Academic Impact of Research May
2005 Prepared by: Huw Davies, Sandra Nutley, Isabel Walter Research
Unit for Research Utilisation School of Management, University of St
Andrews www.st-and.ac.uk/~ruru
Table of Contents: Introduction: growing interest in non-academic
research impacts, Approaches to assessing impact, Forward tracking from
research to consequences, Understanding research use in user
communities, Assessing initiatives aimed at increasing research
impacts, Some core conceptual issues, General methodological
considerations, Concluding remarks, References, Appendix A: An
aide-memoire for impact assessors, Appendix B: Pre-symposium
consultation with speakers ' "This paper is designed to stimulate
thinking in the area of non-academic research impact by highlighting
the conceptual, practical and methodological issues involved. In doing
so, we review and comment on some of the key studies and reports in
this area to date. As our purpose is to open out debate we resist
drawing simple conclusions: instead we highlight crucial issues,
including some key questions that help highlight the choices open to
those developing work in this field (a full distillation of the
strategic, methodological and conceptual questions arising is presented
in Appendix A). (Posted 28/05/05) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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