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Research, Scholarship, and Publication Impact Metrics

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Associate Librarian and Scholarly Services Librarian

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Yen Tran
She/Her
Contact:
Lemieux Library Second Floor iDesk
Subjects: Education, Social Work

What is Social or Cultural Impact?

press vectorIf your works are not necessarily cited in scholarly literature, information in news publications, reviews, recordings, screenings, exhibitions, grants awarded, and prizes won can be can be indicative of the culture/social impact and influence.

Additionally, you may want to consider finding altmetrics that can include social media mentions, citations of your work in Wikipedia, references in grey literature, etc.

All of this information can demonstrate the impact of your scholarship or creative activities.

Information below includes

  • Tools for locating social or cultural impact

Tools for Locating Social or Cultural Impact

Exhibition, Screening, or Performance

  • The impact of an exhibition, screening, or performance can be shown by the number performances, ticket sales, reviews, and where the reviews were published. Information on the performance venue can also be significant.

  • Locate notices of readings and subsequent reviews in the local press using newspaper databases.

  • Then, check the circulation statistics of the individual newspapers for an indication of the impact of the public announcement of the reading notice and/or review.

Prizes and Awards

Information on the significance of prizes and awards can be obtained by finding information about the organization conferring the prize, the number and names (if available) of nominees for the award, previous winners, and the publications announcing the award.

  • For information on an organization, the number and names of nominees for a prize, and previous winners, try the website of the organization.

  • Also, look for announcements of the award in the local press using newspaper databases.

  • Then, check the circulation statistics of the individual newspapers for an indication of the impact of the public announcement of the prize or award.