The real impact of change

Achieving real change in research is hard, complex work. The combination of outdated and prescriptive academic systems, make change difficult.

We understand these challenges, and despite the difficulties, we know that real, exciting change is happening through researchers across the world who are thinking differently about how they approach their work.

We believe that any change is worth celebrating, no matter how big or small it is and, as part of our Real Impact of Change Campaign, we are showcasing the stories of the pioneers who are driving change in research, little by little in their institutions, and across the world.  We hope that sharing these stories will inspire others to follow suit. We have also benchmarked how ‘impact’ is viewed around the globe and how ‘change ready’ we really are as a sector.

Why is Emerald doing this? Our goal is to help our authors develop their pathways to impact and help our users to make evidence-based decisions to create change. As a publisher, we are working with communities to help realise a vision of the real impact of research, co-created and reaching beyond the walls of academia.

As a signatory of DORA, Emerald recognises the need to take a broader and more inclusive approach to research evaluation. This extends to the responsible use of metrics. The real impact of research is so much more than citations from other academics. The journal impact factor is one indicator of academic influence but, taken on its own, doesn’t tell us much about the relevance and real change that research can bring about.

We want to support and showcase research in a number of ways – from the academic influence indicated by citations, to article level attention and user engagement metrics, to its relevance to policy, practice and the public.