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.
DMRC research programs
This project contributes to the research within the following DMRC research programs:
Digital Publics | The Digital Social Contract
Project team
Investigators
- Professor Axel Bruns
- Professor Jean Burgess
- Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham
- Professor Patrik Wikstrom
- Professor Nicolas Suzor
- Dr Kim Osman
- Anthony Peacock, CRC Association
- Lisa Watts, The Conversation
Project partner
Project funding
- ARC Linkage Project (2016-2019)
Publications
Analysing scholarly contributions to public debate with social media issue mapping: a case study of the Australia Day controversy
Burgess, J. Bruns, A. and Osman, K.Communication Research and Practice (2019)
View on eprints.
Engagement and impact through ‘amplifier platforms’
Osman, K. and Cunningham, S.D.Australian Universities’ Review, 61(2), pp. 42-48. (2019)
View on eprints.
‘Amplifier’ platforms and impact: Australian scholars’ use of The Conversation
Osman, K. and Cunningham, S.D.Australian Universities’ Review, 62(1), pp. 41-50. (2020)
View on eprints.
Does engagement predict research use? An analysis of The Conversation Annual Survey 2016.PloS ONE(2018)
View the publication.
