While researchers can be involved in some impact pathways in a very hands-on way, others may arise as a result of the research with less direct interaction; when this occurs, it can be the case that researchers aren’t even aware of the beneficial changes caused by their research. We also here that people know that their research has had an influence, but aren’t quite sure where to find the evidence. Here are a couple of tools that can be useful to help track down impact resulting from your publications.

Altmetrics

We’ve covered Altmetric and PlumX in a previous blog post: they can both provide a lot of useful data that can indicate where your research has made an impact. You can find Altmetric and PlumX data for your outputs in our Research Portal (look for the colourful Altmetric ‘doughnut’ or purple PlumX icon to the right of the webpage). 

However, the Altmetric doughnut provides a limited view of interactions with your publication. The Almetric ‘bookmarklet’ tool helps you to get around this. You’ll have to install the bookmarklet to your browser first. Then, open the record of a publication in Research Portal, click “Altmetric it!” in your bookmarks bar, and you will be taken to a full Altmetric record of interactions with that publication.

To install the bookmarklet, just fill in the short form here and follow the instructions which follow.

Sage Policy Profiles

Sage pulls data from Overton to track the policy impact of publications. Researchers are able to set up a Policy Profile, which uses their ORCID profile to compile policy citations referring to your publications. These may be in any type of policy document, which in this context are “documents written primarily for or by policymakers that are published by a policy focused source”.

This platform also matches profiles to potential policy engagement opportunities, pulling from Overton Engage, “a database which collects calls for evidence and expertise into one place so researchers can see where governments need help and find ways to contribute to decision making.”

Simply set up a Sage Policy Profile, including your ORCID, here. 

These are just a couple of the useful tools and methods available. Check out our previous blogs on Tracking Policy Impact and Evidencing your Impact for more ideas and information