Does your research have policy impact? Introducing SAGEPolicyProfiles

Short summary of my white paper: SAGEPolicyProfiles - a treasure-trove for discovering policy impact

Anne-Wil Harzing - (updated Mon 23 Dec 2024 08:49)

This blogpost introduces my white paper - SAGEPolicyProfiles: a treasure-trove for discovering policy impact - discussing the SAGEPolicyProfiles service as of October 2024. You can explore it for yourself here. SAGEPolicyProfiles provides an intuitive and simple interface with three key features: the number of policy citations, citations by location and citations over time.

You can also dive into each of the policy citations and see what research they cite or vice-versa have a look at a list of your published research and see if and where it is cited in policy documents. In the white paper - SAGEPolicyProfiles: a treasure-trove for discovering policy impact - I illustrate each of these features using my own profile. You can jump to individual sections in the white paper using the Table of Contents below.

Table of contents

What is impact anyway?

The Oxford dictionary defines impact as “a marked effect or influence”. Research impact thus means that our research has affected or influenced something or someone. Unfortunately, this immediately throws up even more questions:

  • Whom has it impacted, i.e., who is the target audience?
  • How has it made an impact, i.e., what was its ultimate goal?
  • Through what means has this impact occurred, i.e., what are the primary outlets?
  • How do we know this impact has occurred, i.e., how can we measure it?

The answer to these four questions very much depends on the specific academic role we are looking at (See Table 1).

Table 1: How research impact differs by academic role

Engagement role - SAGEPolicyProfiles comes to the rescue

Our external engagement role as academics captures the impact of our research on industry, government, and the public/society at large, with the ultimate goal being to address key societal problems. It is the kind of impact incorporated in Impact Case Studies in the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF), defined as “an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond academia”.

Making our research accessible to an audience outside academia typically means “translating” our research for non-academic use by writing up articles for practitioner/professional journals and magazines, as well as publishing policy reports. However, academics may also be able to evidence changes in government policy or legislation that are linked to their original research. Measuring this type of impact is challenging. Recent services like Overton – a database that aims to captures policy impact by tracking citations in policy documents – might help. SAGEPolicyProfiles is a free service that was created in collaboration between Overton and SAGE Publishing.

The verdict?

SAGEPolicyProfiles provides individual academics a quick and easy route to find out whether their work is cited in policy documents. It is a major step forward in bringing home the importance of policy impact to a wider academic audience. As such, I highly recommend you create your own policy profile and study the information it provides. For more information see: SAGEPolicyProfiles: a treasure-trove for discovering policy impact.

However, we should be careful not to get seduced by the fact that we can now put a number on policy impact. Citations in policy documents do not necessarily mean that your work has had a direct impact on policy. For that a much more detailed, and most likely qualitative, analysis would be needed. That said, citations in policy documents are a “pathway to impact”, a route to possible policy impact.

In sum, SAGEPolicyProfiles is an excellent service that allows individual academics to assess which parts of their research are most likely to resonate in the policy arena. This may motivate you to shape your research in this direction so that its policy impact can be realised, whilst maintaining the rigour and independence of academic research.

In sum: measuring impact

It is almost impossible to measure research impact - in any of the three domains listed above - accurately and comprehensively by quantitative metrics alone. On the other hand, relying only on testimonials and a fully narrative approach to establishing research impact is unlikely to convince audiences either. So in evidencing impact – for instance when making a case for promotion – academics are advised to rely on a combination of metrics, qualitative evidence such as testimonials, and career narratives.

For a great summary of impact indicators, see this absolutely stellar 27-page taxonomy. It was created by Amanda Cooper and Samantha Shewchuk and presents an overview of more than 400 indicators for the Social Sciences and Humanities. The authors gathered these indicators from more than 100 research impact resources in more than 32 countries and sorted them into six categories: Scholarship, Capacity Building, Economy, Society and Culture, Practice, and Policy.

Related videos

Related blogposts

academia behind the scenes announcements research focus societal impact resume tenure application

Copyright © 2024 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Mon 23 Dec 2024 08:49

Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.

Anne-Wil Harzing's profile and contact details >>