Abstract
BackgroundHow to assess the impact of research is of growing interest to funders, policy makers and researchers mainly to understand the value of investments and to increase accountability. Broadly speaking the term "research impact" refers to the contribution of research activities to achieve desired societal outcomes. The aim of this overview is to identify the most common approaches to research impact assessment, categories of impact and their respective indicators.MethodsWe systematically searched the relevant literature (PubMed, The Cochrane Library (1990-2009)) and funding agency websites. We included systematic reviews, theoretical and methodological papers, and empirical case-studies on how to evaluate research impact. We qualitatively summarised the included reports, as well the conceptual frameworks.ResultsWe identified twenty-two reports belonging to four systematic reviews and 14 primary studies. These publications reported several theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches (bibliometrics, econometrics, ad hoc case studies). The "payback model" emerged as the most frequently used. Five broad categories of impact were identified: a) advancing knowledge, b) capacity building, c) informing decision-making, d) health benefits, e) broad socio-economic benefits. For each proposed category of impact we summarized a set of indicators whose pros and cons are presented and briefly discussed.ConclusionsThis overview is a comprehensive, yet descriptive, contribution to summarize the conceptual framework and taxonomy of an heterogeneous and evolving area of research. A shared and comprehensive conceptual framework does not seem to be available yet and its single components (epidemiologic, economic, and social) are often valued differently in different models.
Highlights
How to assess the impact of research is of growing interest to funders, policy makers and researchers mainly to understand the value of investments and to increase accountability
The studies adopting an econometric viewpoint [18] or evaluating a specific research area, such as primary care [27,28] or health system effectiveness [29] did not quote bibliometric indicators. Main findings This overview of reviews shows that the assessment of the impact of, or benefits from, health research is an issue of growing interest, mainly in those countries (UK, Canada, Australia, USA) that invest more in research. Research in this area focuses on three broad areas: i) theoretical frameworks and models aiming at assessing research impact with respect to multidimensional and integrated categories; ii) methodological approaches to the evaluation exercise; and iii) development of valid and reliable indicators and metrics
The main message of this overview is that the evaluation of the research impact is as yet a heterogeneous, and evolving discipline
Summary
How to assess the impact of research is of growing interest to funders, policy makers and researchers mainly to understand the value of investments and to increase accountability. Speaking the term “research impact” refers to the contribution of research activities to achieve desired societal outcomes The aim of this overview is to identify the most common approaches to research impact assessment, categories of impact and their respective indicators. From the limited available evidence on the proportion of investments by research stream, funding is skewed toward biomedical and basic research which, by definition, require more time to have an impact [6]. This has raised a debate between those who ask for a priority-setting based on the ability to produce relevant, usable, and transferable outputs and those supporting the view that research should be driven only by the researchers’ interest. Moving toward more robust metrics, such as those measuring the health status or the economic benefit of a population, is a complex task but in some way essential [13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
