Scholarly Research Impact

Research impact goes beyond your tenure file and grant funding - it's the mark you make on the world. What kind of impact do you want to have? Changes in policy? Cultural awareness? Scholarly conversation? This is space for you to consider your professional goals and the story you want to tell.

Here are some things to consider when planning your research impact strategy:

1. What are your research goals, and your measurements for success?
2. How will people keep track of you across jobs? Is this important to you?
3. Who would benefit from this research? Think broadly about your audience and potential interdisciplinary connections.
4. Does your grant request an anticipated impact path?
5. Have you considered publishing Open Access? OA Journals, in addition to receiving more citations and views, allow your work to be shared with those without access to library journal subscriptions.
6. Other than the publication, how else can you share your work? (Social media, university marketing channels, conferences)
7. Do you want to measure your impact? (H-index, citation analysis)

For a more in-depth planning tool, try this worksheet from UM Libraries.