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Find and track your impact
Efficiently research your research impact!
Finding out how and where your research has had impact, and collecting verifiable evidence of it, can be a daunting and time-consuming task if you’re doing it long after you completed the research itself. Here we describe how to approach the task systematically and efficiently. You can also use this approach to track impact as it happens, which is ultimately more efficient and effective.
Key takeaways
Identify end-users and beneficiaries for active engagement during and after research.
Select indicators to track impact, combining multiple indicators for a comprehensive picture.
Collect evidence against chosen indicators, tracking impact changes over time.
There are no rules about how to catalogue your evidence, pick something that works for you.
Read time: 3 min
1. Identify end-users and beneficiaries
Determine who (or which entities) are likely to use or benefit from your research. You’ll want to be actively engaging with these groups during and after your research to increase uptake as part of your impact strategy. If you’re trying to find your impact retrospectively, knowing the likely beneficiaries of your research can help you know where to look.
Learn more about different types of beneficiaries.
2. Select indicators to track impact
An indicator is a parameter that you can observe (and ideally measure) that shows your work is having an impact. It’s sometimes described as a ‘sign’ or ‘symptom’ of impact.
A single indicator alone can generally only give you an approximation of your impact. But when multiple indicators are brought together, it is possible to build a more accurate picture of your impact.
Just remember, indicators are intended to help you monitor your impact and know you’re making a difference. But the real goal is impact, not the indicators of impact.
Examples of indicators
Indicators can be very project specific, but common examples include:
- % or number of a target group who changed perceptions, behaviour, awareness or otherwise benefited
- Number of attendees, participants, users of a service
- Citation metrics (for academic impact)
- Number of hits, views, downloads, events, reprints
- Amount of money saved, spent, or generated
- Amount of uptake of something
- The degree of change or benefits resulting from uptake
- The extent of the reach of uptake or a change
- Any other measurable parameter that indicates impact from your project and engagement.
Selecting appropriate indicators
Good indicators will:
- Be meaningful and relevant to the impact
- Be accurate, reliable, and replicable
- Be feasible and quick to measure
- Provide timely information
- Use available or public data where applicable.
3. Collect evidence and keep track
Collect evidence against your chosen indicators. If you’re gathering evidence as you go, you can track how your impact changes over time.
Many people ask how they should catalogue their evidence, and there are no hard and fast rules. Do whatever works for you in your context, and pick an approach that will be easy to come back to later as you add more evidence over time. Some people use a Word document and a simple folder, others use spreadsheets, and others use dedicated software like Hivve Impact Tracket (University of Sydney researchers can register for an account or learn more (UniKey required)).
If you’re collecting evidence as you go, remember to actively plan this as part of your activities. Planning for public engagement is a good example of why this is important.
Help from the Library
- Tools for identifying real world impact
- Guide on citation metrics evidencing academic impact
- Request a citation metrics report (pdf, 176 KB)
4. Keep an eye out for unexpected impacts
Once you’ve published your research or made outputs available to others it is virtually impossible to know all the different ways these might be used. Many people have discovered interesting or unexpected impacts from following a lead and doing some digging.