Impact Lasse Heje Pedersen Impact: overview of

Transcript:Impact Lasse Heje Pedersen Impact: overview of:
Impact Lasse Heje Pedersen Impact: overview of talk What is impact? Abstract definition, concrete examples, impact measures Why is impact important? How to get impact? As a researcher (micro) and as a university (macro) What is impact? Abstract definition One definition of impact (that I made up): Impact = (innovation) * (#number of people using it) Wrong measures of impact: Impact = (#number of people using it) E.g., “clickbait” with no content Paper cited for being wrong Academic often in the news saying nonsense Impact = (innovation) E.g., a “nice” result that no one uses Difficult to measure accurately Refined measures: People/papers weighted by their impact (fixed point) Short-term vs. long-term impact Deeper results: less short-term, more lasting impact Kuhn: citation pattern changes after a “scientific revolution” 3 Lasse Heje Pedersen What is impact? Concrete examples 4 Lasse Heje Pedersen Academic impact comes first, key focus at most top universities Societal impact often follows naturally – a university should not seek to impact society based on no research Who cares about impact? 5 Lasse Heje Pedersen Why is impact important? Supply (from universities/researchers): Impact means that research is useful and successful Demand (from users): Real-world decisions should be made based on facts and research What to avoid: A doctor should not operate unless we have evidence that it works A government should not have programs unless we have evidence that they work A business should not use methods known to be counterproductive What to do: use the latest research to be as effective as possible Investment firm using the latest finance research to construct their portfolio An HR department using the latest research to interview optimally A marketing department choosing the form of advertising based on facts 6 Lasse Heje Pedersen Getting impact as a researcher To get impact, you need: Useful research Potential users know about the research Go for top journals Present at conferences Talk to lots of people about the research Other researchers Practitioners and other people working with these issues Lasse Heje Pedersen 7 Getting impact as a researcher, continued Be relevant How is the paper useful? In which situations might we act differently because of the paper? How does the paper change our thinking? Be clear Choose a good title Using everyday words is powerful especially if it creates an image in the reader’s mind Being very abstract and using very specialized terms is less