Abstract
BackgroundProviding evidence of impact highlights the benefits of medical research to society. Such evidence is increasingly requested by research funders and commonly relies on citation analysis. However, other indicators may be more informative. Although frameworks to demonstrate the impact of clinical research have been reported, no complementary framework exists for methodological research. Therefore, we assessed the impact of methodological research projects conducted or completed between 2009 and 2012 at the UK Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit Hub for Trials Methodology Research Hub, with a view to developing an appropriate framework.MethodsVarious approaches to the collection of data on research impact were employed. Citation rates were obtained using Web of Science (http://www.webofknowledge.com/) and analyzed descriptively. Semistructured interviews were conducted to obtain information on the rates of different types of research output that indicated impact for each project. Results were then pooled across all projects. Finally, email queries pertaining to methodology projects were collected retrospectively and their content analyzed.ResultsSimple citation analysis established the citation rates per year since publication for 74 methodological publications; however, further detailed analysis revealed more about the potential influence of these citations. Interviews that spanned 20 individual research projects demonstrated a variety of types of impact not otherwise collated, for example, applications and further developments of the research; release of software and provision of guidance materials to facilitate uptake; formation of new collaborations and broad dissemination. Finally, 194 email queries relating to 6 methodological projects were received from 170 individuals across 23 countries. They provided further evidence that the methodologies were impacting on research and research practice, both nationally and internationally. We have used the information gathered in this study to adapt an existing framework for impact of clinical research for use in methodological research.ConclusionsGathering evidence on research impact of methodological research from a variety of sources has enabled us to obtain multiple indicators and thus to demonstrate broad impacts of methodological research. The adapted framework developed can be applied to future methodological research and thus provides a tool for methodologists to better assess and report research impacts.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1745-6215-15-464) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Providing evidence of impact highlights the benefits of medical research to society
Many funding bodies require researchers to demonstrate the impacts of their completed research, whilst others, including the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), expect all new funding applications to outline their plans to measure impact
Methodological research conducted by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) Hub is primarily designed to develop research methods, to improve the quality and consistency of research practice in three areas: applied statistical methodology, trial-conduct methodology and meta-analysis methodology
Summary
Providing evidence of impact highlights the benefits of medical research to society Such evidence is increasingly requested by research funders and commonly relies on citation analysis. We assessed the impact of methodological research projects conducted or completed between 2009 and 2012 at the UK Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit Hub for Trials Methodology Research Hub, with a view to developing an appropriate framework. Approaches to demonstrating and measuring the impact of clinical research have been reported [1,2,3] and a framework has been proposed [4] This framework, the Becker model, categorizes different types of research output, such as development of collaborations or different ways of disseminating research to demonstrate such impacts as advancement of knowledge and implementation. We aimed to identify ways to assess indicators of impacts beyond identifying publication and citation rates of our research
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
