Impact Research
My latest paper on impact with Dr Hannah Rudman (4 years in the making) argues that we need to re-think research impact if we are to truly benefit those most in need. It identifies three crucial points we need to consider when designing research for impact. Read the Twitter thread here and come to a workshop I'm facilitating to unpack issues with the word "stakeholder". The idea is that this will lead to a co-authored opinion piece designed to open up the issue and consider what research needs to be done (with Indigenous groups) to come up with alternatives. In case you missed it, here's my blog on whether we should ban the word "stakeholder".
Are you a scholar, an influencer or exceptional? A new open access paper uses balance between altmetric scores and citations to identify three types of researcher. Remember, no evidence of actual non-academic impact can be inferred from altmetrics alone.
New analysis of Hong Kong impact case studies shows on average impacts occurred 7-19 years after the research was published.
Elegant open access article by Karen Ross arguing for the necessity of qualitative methods to evaluate impact as they can capture benefits that are only made explicit through dialogue at the time and through discussion as time passes with those evaluating impact.
Another great article by Ann Singo & Caroline Ferguson containing important and powerfully communicated principles about how to work more respectfully with communities and local researchers when doing research in another country or with another culture.
Researchers often underestimate the time and costs of successful knowledge exchange for impact. A narrative review identifies the costs, examines the benefits, and highlights practical considerations.
What is co-production? New systematic review shows co-production can be understood as a science-politics relationship, as knowledge democracy, as transdisciplinarity, as boundary management, and as an evidence-use intervention.
A social network analysis of the Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme science-policy network showed that users of research don't report the impacts that researchers expect them to. When it works, boundary organisations are critical to success. Access the publication here.
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Interesting Reads & Resources
Check out my opinion piece in Times Higher Education: Impact broke the academy. Only a culture change can fix it.
I really enjoyed Wade Kelly's new edited volume, The Impactful Academic. Struck by how far ahead Canada is when it comes to drawing on diverse forms of knowledge and paying attention to context, thanks to Lauren Albrecht & Catherine Scott's chapter, Knowledge Mobilization: A Path to Impact. Check out my short twitter thread here on their KMb process.
Lots of great ideas for evaluating impact in complex systems in this blog from UNDP Innovation.
Trying to achieve impact via "nudge" approaches can be at best paternalistic and at worst manipulative - and it often doesn't work. Great blog by Tony Hockley exploring the debate over nudge effectiveness.
There’s a new Research Impact Twitter Community for folks around the world share projects, sessions, publications, and post questions/ideas for feedback.
There have also been some great tweet threads on interesting topics. Nicholas Coles put together a great thread of useful advice for making your talks more engaging. Jamie Gallagher also shared some excellent advice on how researchers can pursue policy engagement, specifically with the UK Government and Parliament.
Think Again by Adam Grant was a thought-provoking read from the Doers and Improvers Book Club. I posted a few tweet threads as I was reading on imposter syndrome, detaching our beliefs from our identies, and empathetic leadership. I’ve found so many great books through this group.
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Important Notes
On the heels of the powerful Nature guest editorial ‘Science must overcome its racist legacy,’ I discovered that James Watson (of Watson and Crick fame) promoted racist views as recently as 2007. I apologise for using him as an example in The Productive Researcher, and for implicitly legitimising him as an example that others could follow. The next print run of the book won't include this example.
I am indebted to the many generous colleagues who have patiently helped me appreciate my own privilege and the responsibilities that come with this. Viewing my own research through these new eyes, I now see how far short much of my previous work has fallen. I have formally apologised for the epistemic racism of my PhD research which sought to "validate" local knowledge using Western scientific methods in my latest paper, which I summarised in this Twitter thread. This thread includes my apology and a link to a podcast episode where I discuss the decision to publish both the paper and apology.
I highly recommend Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad, if you want to delve deeper into these issues. I am now reviewing all of my past and current work and not relying on others to inform me of what's inappropriate. Despite changing the current edition of The Productive Researcher, I am aware that earlier editions and my early papers continue to be read and will continue to do harm. This includes the use of the word "stakeholder" in many of my published works (to better understand the issue, see my recent blog post). I am organising a workshop to discuss the issues and explore alternatives to the term, which you can learn more about here. I am in a privileged position to be able to use this platform to raise awareness of these issues, and want to do what I can to right these wrongs. But this is a process and it is far from complete, so please let me know if you think there's anything more I can and should be doing.
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I hope you've found something useful in this newsletter - if you think others would benefit from future emails, they can subscribe here. And just hit "reply" and get in touch if there's anything in the newsletter you'd like to discuss with me - I love hearing from people! I'll be in touch again next month with another newsletter edition.
Take care till then,
Mark
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