Measuring Research Impact: Ngā Ara Whakatairanga Rangahau | 10 Ways To Boost Your Impact

Consider your research goals and the audience your research needs to reach. Make decisions accordingly and consider all kinds of impact, scholarly and non-scholarly.

Some funders are starting to ask for pathways to impact as part of grant applications. Think about who might benefit from your research and how. Consider ways you might measure the impact of your research after it's been completed.

Think carefully when choosing keywords and titles. Remember that your research will generally appear higher in search results where a keyword is used multiple times, especially in the title and abstract.

In your email signature, in any online profiles, in submissions, wherever you can. Ensure that you’ve automated as much profile building as possible.

Other ways to use your ORCID:

• Enter it whenever you're prompted to do so in a system you trust, e.g. IRIS
• Authorize Crossref to automatically keep your record up to date
• Connect to your existing works - use the "Search and link" tool to pull records from major databases and add any missing publications manually
• Add your ORCID ID to your CV and all your other profiles
• Download your unique QR code and use it anywhere e.g. personal website

  

Using persistent identifiers such as ORCID and DOIs minimises the risk that your work will be misattributed and optimises the ability of various tools to gather and report on impact and attention.

Check that your name, affiliation and publications are correct in all databases (IRIS, Scopus, Google Scholar etc). Link profiles and add additional identifiers wherever possible

	Good	Better	Best
	Create account & make it public Add name variations Add or import publications Add ORCID URL to email signature Link to IRIS*	Add keywords Link to website or your other profiles Display ID on other profiles, submissions Enable auto updates from Researcher ID etc Download your unique QR code	Add email, bio, employment Add education & qualifications Add membership, service, funding and distinctions
	Check for publications Claim any unassigned publications Check affiliation* Add name variations and merge profiles if necessary	View potential matches Add Scopus ID in IRIS* Add preferred name	Authorise ORCID integration
	Create account Check & claim auto added publications Add a photo Make your profile public	Manually add missing publications Add areas of interest Add website or other profiles	Add co-authors 'Follow' your articles, citations, recommended 'Follow' other peoples articles, citations etc

*staff only

According to recent research, Open Access articles receive on average 44% more citations than non Open Access articles (White et al, 2019).

Many publishing contracts allow accepted manuscripts to be deposited in repositories under certain conditions, even if you haven’t paid a fee for it to be made Open Access. 

Did you know?

80% of journals will allow you to make your paper Open Access for FREE in Research Commons

source - sherpa.ac.uk/romeo

By clicking the "Deposit" button, your work will be submitted to the University of Waikato Research Commons for review and approval by Research Commons staff. They will investigate the policy of the journal and get in touch with you if they have any queries. (Note: in most cases, an accepted manuscript is required).

If appropriate, consider sharing your data sets, software or other digital resources. With the appropriate identifiers, these can then be credited back to you as other researchers make use of them.

Make your work as visible as possible. Share it wherever you can, for example, at conferences, on your personal website, through social media or online academic networks.

Writing for a wider audience, for example by publishing a lay summary or a blog can open up your research to a wider range of readers, including influencers and policymakers as well as the public, enhancing impact outside of academia