“Too often people think too narrowly about what ‘impacts’ can mean.”
as Sir Phillip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of the Springer Nature says.
In Campbell’s research paper from 2005 about the Journal Impact Factor, he emphasised how research impact is
“a multi-dimensional construct that cannot portugal rcs data be adequately measured by any single indicator.”
Because his work in Springer Nature is focused on research from across all the disciplines, directly or indirectly related to societal challenges, and the themes of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Campbell prefers the term research impact over scientific impact.
As Campbell says,
“The latter language is perceived by some to exclude the vital contributions of the humanities and social sciences, for example, there are many paths by which research can impact and influence other research and activities outside research.”
And that is exactly the reason why many governments and funders are trying to include more alternative ways of assessing research. There are several questions to be answered: over the years? How can we measure the ways of complementing quantitative metrics? And is it possible at all?