Abstract

Measuring the reach and impact of research publications is important in helping UK HEIs respond to challenges in the research landscape. With the modern digital publishing ecosystem, the measurement of emerging alternative metrics is becoming increasingly key, as well as identifying how they can be represented and interpreted across multiple disciplines, sometimes using abstract, synthesized values. This can often be a difficult task to do without specific, specialised tools.

To help bring all of these distinct types of measures together, the University of Lincoln is working on a prototype “Research Bridge” platform for use across the institution. This will assist in helping to make sense of not only the currently available metrics, but also institution specific synthesized metrics while being flexible enough to include emerging measures as they become relevant.

This presentation will look at the issues surrounding gathering information from disparate systems, the benefits of an open culture and how using altmetrics alongside other available measurements can change the academic perspective on research impact.