Amplifying public value: Scholarly contributions' impact on public debate

Project Summary

Publicly funded researchers and agencies are increasingly expected to respond to the need for greater detail and transparency of the impact of their contributions to wider public value, public debate and opinion formation. Working closely with partners The Conversation and Cooperative Research Centres Association, this project applies groundbreaking, mixed-methods analytical techniques to improving the assessment of impact of scholarly public intellectual content. It does this by investigating the ‘amplifier platforms’ contribution to the impact of public intellectual outputs on public debate as well as how these services impact researchers’ and public intellectuals’ career trajectories. The project will improve the evidence base internationally for the public impact and value of publicly funded scholarly research. It will provide robust indicators of the impact of platforms for scholarly public intellectual content. It will impact policy and organisational process by developing recommendations for scholars, their institutions, and government impact assessment schemes that are designed to strengthen the impact of scholarly public communication on the public debate.

Publications

• Burgess, J. Bruns, A. & Osman, K. (2019). Analysing scholarly contributions to public debate with social media issue mapping: a case study of the Australia Day controversy, Communication Research and Practice, DOI: 10.1080/22041451.2019.1689688
• Osman, K. & Cunningham, S. D. (2019). Engagement and impact through ‘amplifier platforms‘. Australian Universities’ Review, 61(2), pp. 42-48.
• Osman, Kim & Cunningham, Stuart D. (2020). ‘Amplifier’ platforms and impact: Australian scholars’ use of The Conversation. Australian Universities’ Review, 62(1), pp. 41-50.
• Zardo P., Barnett A.G., Suzor N., Cahill T. (2018) Does engagement predict research use? An analysis of The Conversation Annual Survey 2016. PLoS ONE 13(2): e0192290. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192290