Measuring the true reach of research

Published research has become more widely available, thanks to open access. Along with this increased exposure comes the increased uptake and use of work, which can make measuring the true impact of research challenging.

A new database template has been developed by the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care to help researchers better assess the reach of their work - and it is available free of charge.

The tool records published journal articles for a particular research project plus the wider impact the research has had such as conference presentations, media exposure and its uptake or use.

Developed in Microsoft Access, it can accommodate research projects across multiple institutions or those conducted at an individual institution.

“Being able to demonstrate the wider influence of research, rather than just published journal articles, is a lot more difficult,” said Monash University’s Lisa Lavey, who led the development of the tool.

“The centre started with a very simple database that grew into a tool that can handle complex data. It can now record an incredible amount of detail, including the traditional journal articles, books and conference presentations, as well as stakeholder presentations, media contact and evidence of uptake or use of research.”

Indicators of impact are organised by domain (academic, policy, service delivery and society at large) and whether those impacts were initiated by the centre or institution, or by the user of the research.

The database template is available free of charge under a licence agreement with Monash University. More information is available here.

The Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care is a collaboration between the School of Rural Health at Monash University, the Centre for Remote Health (a joint centre of Flinders University and Charles Darwin University) and the Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health at The University of Sydney