It is very good question. Research should be oriented toward real life problem solving. Unfortunately, in many studies, the societal impact of research has been postulated rather than demonstrated.

Research is less and less assessed on scientific impact alone—we should aim to quantify the increasingly important contributions of science to society. I think the following study is useful for you question:

Lutz Bornmann , Measuring the societal impact of research, EMBO Rep. 2012 Aug; 13(8): 673–676. Published online 2012 Jul 10. doi:  10.1038/embor.2012.99

Abstact: The global financial crisis has changed how nations and agencies prioritize research investment. There has been a push towards science with expected benefits for society, yet devising reliable tools to predict and measure the social impact of research remains a major challenge. ...

…research into societal impact is still in the early stages: there is no distinct community with its own series of conferences, journals or awards for special accomplishments

Whether scientists like it or not, the societal impact of their research is an increasingly important factor in attracting the public funding and support of basic research

Please see full text from: Article Measuring the societal impact of research

At first the relevance of the question and of the results for common needs and interests. But also surprizing results which are able to change scientific theories about a subject-matter fundamentally.

Your question is too unspecific to say much more because nearer commentation needs specific relations for the concept "influence of research". For a group of researcher to get more money for contunuing research? For the media? For some concerned people? For careers? I know more than one research project where the short-time effect was a certain interest of the media by reporting results. But the most experienced longtime-effect was that young scientsts hat success in their career to get a chair - nothing else; and I have to object nothing agaist this. But such factors are discussed rather seldom.

As a result of our life renewable requirements, it is very important to conduct researches to facilitate our life with excellent level of living circumstances including all other aspects of all living beings on the Earth.

Emad

Hi,

The impact of an article depends on the discipline's scientific community that absorbs the results published, and accepts or rejects these results.So, the impact of a published article is a question of relevance. It seems that a breakthrough paper that arises more and further research questions has the highest impact.

in my views the point, " Did the researcher write the paper on his or her own, or with the help of others? " is not much important. A good paper is a product of many discussions, reviews and including ideas and refining ideas with friends, peers, co-researchers, Supervisor/teachers, etc.

So the important thing is the result and output of that paper

In general most of the research paper published worldwide in different streams by various publishers have academic purpose only. Very few (less than 1%) are fulfilling the criteria like uncovering new knowledge, start a new discipline, inventing a new industry and, as a result, create new types of jobs, improving the national economy in any way, changing the lives of millions of people, etc.

The current culture of "racing for citations and number of papers" is neither hurting research and nor preventing the real impact but it merely fulfilling the academic purpose.

Thank you very much for all the answers, they are very useful in complementing with the questions presented by Chai K. Toh.

Particularly the distinction in short term and long term impacts are very helpful.

Personally, when I used the word impact I was thinking of societal impact and impacts in improving people's lives specially those who are less privileged. This comes from the fact that research in academia is usually funded by the tax payers support.

interesting question

It is very good question. Research should be oriented toward real life problem solving. Unfortunately, in many studies, the societal impact of research has been postulated rather than demonstrated.

Research is less and less assessed on scientific impact alone—we should aim to quantify the increasingly important contributions of science to society. I think the following study is useful for you question:

Lutz Bornmann , Measuring the societal impact of research, EMBO Rep. 2012 Aug; 13(8): 673–676. Published online 2012 Jul 10. doi:  10.1038/embor.2012.99

Abstact: The global financial crisis has changed how nations and agencies prioritize research investment. There has been a push towards science with expected benefits for society, yet devising reliable tools to predict and measure the social impact of research remains a major challenge. ...

…research into societal impact is still in the early stages: there is no distinct community with its own series of conferences, journals or awards for special accomplishments

Whether scientists like it or not, the societal impact of their research is an increasingly important factor in attracting the public funding and support of basic research

Please see full text from: Article Measuring the societal impact of research

This is a good question. In addition to the answers already given, there is a bit more to add.

I agree with @ Mahesh Kumar : Very few (less than 1%) are fulfilling the criteria like uncovering new knowledge, start a new discipline, inventing a new industry and, as a result, create new types of jobs, improving the national economy in any way, changing the lives of millions of people....

For an ordinary, garden-variety researcher, the IEEE criteria apply to research that has stood the test of time, reaching back at least 50 years and possibly 100s of years. Probably one of the most successful research initiatives was the introduction of fuzzy sets by L. Zadeh in 1965, closely followed by the introduction of rough sets by Z. Pawlak. These two research initiatives would be of interest to IEEEers, since there is evidence of a broad range of industrial applications such vehicle control systems (mainly, fuzzy logic) and data mining (mainly, rough sets, especially in the capable hands of a number of members of the rough set community).

If we broaden the reach of the IEEE criteria to include Mathematics, then the story changes and research initiatives span 1000s of years, starting with geometry introduced by Euclid, Archimedes and Pythagoras 25 centuries ago, followed by the introduction of algebra by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi during 800+ B.C.:

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/science-in-a-golden-age/2015/10/al-khwarizmi-father-algebra-151019144853758.html

Geometry: The introduction of geometry has had huge, important implications both in Mathematics and Science. Among other forms of geometry, perhaps the most influential in practical terms, there is analytic geometry introduced by Rene Descartes (see the attached image) in 1637:

https://www.maa.org/publications/periodicals/convergence/the-geometry-of-rene-descartes

Algebra: The introduction of algebra also had huge, important implications in Mathematics and Science, especially if we consider the widespread use of group theory in cosmology. A very good introduction to a cutting edge view of algebra is given by Paul Alexandroff (Pavel Aleksandrov, 1896-1982) in

https://books.google.ca/books/about/An_Introduction_to_the_Theory_of_Groups.html?id=uztyrgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Defining Excellence - Guidance on the application of the promotion ...📷

www.bristol.ac.uk › ... › Academic Promotion Procedure

Good question and informative answers thank you all!

Interesting information.

In the context of this conversation on how to evaluate research impact, I want to share this article that I found extremely nice, telling us something about the beginning of research and how our judgement of it can sometimes be very mistaken:

http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05091-3?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20180510&utm_source=nature_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180510&spMailingID=56589675&spUserID=MjcxNjE1NjIzMzA3S0&spJobID=1401532263&spReportId=MTQwMTUzMjI2MwS2

It is written by Ian Stewart, a mathematician who also wrote other very interesting stories:

https://ianstewartjoat.weebly.com/

Research can have many different kinds of effects and impact depending on the discipline and the research organisation. Society’s expectations of the impact of science are also different for different disciplines.

New information and expertise generated by research can, for instance:

- boost prosperity by providing solutions for streamlining business operations,

- aid and support policy-making by providing reliable background information,

- generate knowledge and skills needed in working life,

- support individuals in spiritual growth and education.

In the long term, science and research also contribute to the development of society’s ultimate aims and our understanding of the best way to reach them (see: Academy of Finland https://www.aka.fi/en/)

If the paper is of applied nature with some benefits to a society.

Following.

An excellent question with quite many facets. In my opinion it has to contribute to new knowledge that improves and contributes to the development of the society.

Sometimes the individual findings may by useful in other fields. An apparently minor break-through in one field may have significant impact for the humanity in other topics. A related question was posted three weeks ago:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/To_which_extent_are_major_research_breakthroughs_a_result_of_serendipity

It is really a difficult question. I fully agree with Prof. Olav Bjarte Fosso that novelty and improvement in the existing state-of-the-art should be the criteria to rank the quality of research.

Research is an excitation of a dynamical system. After a long struggle, when you throw a paper out there, its influence will depend on your area of scholarship. So, how do we rate impact? Why should a fine effort of research in a dormant area be penalised? These are questions the ranking platforms must tackle, and they all struggle, including RG.