Citations can be misleading because it is possible that a particular article may be cited by people who oppose it. So if the citations are the result of criticism, is it possible to state that there will be an impact in this case?

As for the practical contribution: how to know if someone has read and applied the ideas of our articles? Is it possible to have this control?

Hi Muhammad,

For me, the answer is that academics/researchers should strive for both. I agree that traditionally 'pure' academic citation metrics dictated how we were 'measured' in terms of research impact and that is largely still the same - but that landscape is rapidly changing. It is becoming increasingly common, especially for job interviews, to be able to identify how your work impacts practice and how industry notices/receives your research.

Hi Muhammad,

In the middle/late 90's professional doctorates (e.g. management (DBA) and education (EdD)) gained more attention in English speaking countries, mainly in UK and Australia. The idea was to connect more tightly practice and theory and help qualified professionals to develop them self to "scholar practitioners".

In that relation some scholars promoted a re-thinking in science. For instance, scholars like Nowotny et al. (2001) argue that in an age of uncertainty new high-level academic education programs are needed for overcoming the challenges in practice. - See also knowledge creation in Mode 1 and Mode 2 (Huff, 2000).

Regards,

Roland

Literature:

Huff, A. S. (2000) 1999 Presidential address: changes in organizational knowledge production. Academy of Management Review. 25 (2), 288-293.

Nowotny, H., Scott, P. & Gibbons, M. (2001) Re-thinking science: knowledge and the public in an age of uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Interesting as an academic i.e. PhD working in industry I understand the predicament. I agree with Dean Whitehead, you want a combination of both. I wrote a paper on reclaiming Waste Foundry Sand (WFS). Having the paper cited is good as it gives the paper credit from academic peers. However, what is more important to me is that research paper is shared in industry so that people working in industry can adopt it, re-claim WFS, help contribute to producing less waste and save money.

Obviously there is no official measure for this. In truth this doesn't massively concern me. My main focus with this paper was ensuring it was presented to the correct audience. What I did was to communicate the paper with the Institute of Cast Metal Engineers who put it in there monthly magazine which is distributed to actual foundry men working in the industry. It was then tweaked and improved and a Journal picked it up and published it. This can sometimes be frowned on i.e. publishing it in two places but it was important to me that the people who could take advantage of the paper could see it, and the journal was fine with that and published it where it can now be accessed in the longer term by academics.

I am not currently working on a paper but I think I would follow the same process even if it meant a journal wouldn't pick it up. I would analyse the paper I am working on and think who is the audience, is it industry if so lets try and get it published in an Institutes magazine or communicated to their members, even at the chance of it not being picked up by a journal. Or do I want to share it with academic peers who can take the research forward and advance it, in which case a Journal would be best. Or go for a combination of the two again, if at all possible.

Martin McKie Roland Kaulbars and Dean Whitehead thank you so much for the insightful answers. I think, how to measure the industry applicability is still not answered in literature. Maybe, there are few researchers like Dr. Martin Mckie. Martin McKie I agree and appreciate the way you are working, I think your contribution of industry is more than a citation and there must be a way, where an researcher who is "academicians & practitioners at the same time" must be recognized. I am looking for more researchers point of view. I hope with this discussion we will get more insights to reach on a conclusion.

Looking forward for more experts feedback. Please do share with me more insights. I would love to hear more from you, as I want to write about this topic.

The UK Research Excellence Framework assessment process attempts to do this

"The Research Excellence Framework (REF), first conducted in 2014, is a system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). REF 2014 demonstrated that research conducted by universities can lead to impact beyond academia – for example, on society, the economy, public policy, and health – both for individuals and organisations, within the UK and beyond"

You may find the link useful

https://www.ref.ac.uk/media/1018/guidance-for-standardising-quantitative-indicators-of-impact.pdf

A. Levers Sir, Thank you so much for sharing the article. I will go through it. Please do share with me more insights. I would love to hear more from you, as I want to write about this topic

Muhammad

You can find a searchable list of all the UK impact case studies from the 2014 assessment, here

https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/

Thank you Sir A. Levers

I agree with the previous comments, both academic citations and industry applications are important. I think, this is the whole idea of translational research in medical sciences, for instance.

Emmanuel O Adewuyi Thank you for your answer, but how it is measured in case of industry applications? To further elaborate it , I am asking in context of the researcher/scientist profile.

Please share with me details, if there is any objective, measurable standard like Citations to track the academic performance in the field of Transnational research in medical science. I am looking forward to learn form that methodology. Thank you.

Daniel Goldman Cam Caldwell Dag Ole Storrosten Nour S. Erekat

The above-all purpose of my research is serving the mankind enhancing the body of knowledge in any possible aspect.

Fateh Boutekkouk

Citations generally do mean that people are reading your work, and that people have some level of interest in it. I'm not sure it's enough though. That's why I still promote a tagging system being added to "preprint" servers like RG. That, coupled with the current Research Interest score, could be a useful metric. But I think the greatest measure of the impact is something that must come from actual discussion with other scientists. The more people are actually discussing your work, the more of an impact it is having.

Daniel Goldman Thank you so much for your as usual insightful and thought provoking answer. Do you think it can be quantified as citations? Can we count recommendations as practical contributions? Can the journals introduce something like who is downloading the article, a practitioner or an academician? Form that system, they can give a rating to the writers in parallel with citations? would love to hear from you more about any possible ways which you think can make the impact quantifiable like citations?

There should be some way to quantify the practicability of researchers work.

Pre-prints can also help, but that is I think another domain which empowers the academicians.

Important words

Muhammad - I think that the 'social media' industry is trying to keep up. One thing that I like about RG (although it is a frustration at the same time) is that they are always trying to adapt. For instance, I noticed the other day that when you look at one of your articles it now gauges it's 'research impact'. It doesn't say against what (part of the frustration) and it is, I assume, only against other citation and/or reads etc in RG - but it could start to introduce other metrics i.e. 'cited by official reports' etc. The other frustration, for me, is that RG introduces changes - but then doesn't let me know - at least not personally.

Going back to Fateh's very good response - I particularly agree with the notion of discouraging 'research for research-sake'. I also disagree with publishing for 'maximum citation' without regard for the target audience i.e. targeting high IF journals when they may not be the most suitable audience. That said, there is institutional pressure from many institutions for authors to target high IF journals and/or those with Q1 rankings. The move to change, I think, will be dictated by industry - but it also requires universities to change their thinking about how they measure and /contractually' impose individual researcher impact.

This is a good discussion thread - and question. I've not come across as good a one, from my perspective, for a while.

In my opinion, if academia strives to target the current issues of the industry, their work definitely will get citations. I believe citations are not/should not be the only measure of quality of work.Unfortunately, in most of the Asian countries, Industry believes that academia is doing the work that do not contribute to them and academia believes the industry is not using their findings.

Farooq - you raised such a great problem. we are looking for the experts opinion.

Dean Whitehead Thank you Sir for you answer, yes, RG continuously adapting new things. I gave them suggestion to measure the impact of research beyond citations. I am sure, they will ask for your feedback, they are implementing Total Research Interest (TRI) in phases. Somehow, I feel the TRI is better compared to only counting citations to measure a researcher productivity.

I think thats a wonderful idea, they should also add the citations of official reports, downloads from industry. I believe one of the reason academicians are less focusing on practical part is their institutions least care about the impact of research beyond citation or IF journals. If impact is measured in terms of applicability of the research, things can change. Thank you for your contribution. I hope with more responses and feedback, we will reach on a better conclusion.

Muhammad Farrukh I can be wrong, but I think, the way we measure productivity or impact of something, decides the future attitude of people ( Experts/researchers). I agree the gap between academia and practice is not because of only academicians, but the way we measure any researcher productivity is the main issue. I mean if researchers are getting promotions based on Impact Factors Journals and citations without any requirement of applicability, then why would they focus on it??

As other researchers also agree that citations are not enough, the practical contributions should also be counted while rating researchers, the real issue I feel is making the practical contribution measurable. Something quantifiable as citations, May be we can work on it, because I feel its a big gap, if we come up with some better performance indicators, that can be a good contribution.

Yehya A. Salih Sir, is there any method in Mycology, to measure practical contribution of researchers which social science can adapt? some way to measure the productivity of researchers beyond citations?

Malaysian univs are followinh certain KPIs for promotion and "consultancy" is one of them,but its all based on subjective measure/ discretion of committe.In my opinion developing an objective measure of practical implications would not be an easy job in terms of acceptance by the academics.Additionally,resesrchers in social science can only provide suggestions,the implication of those suggestions would be practitioners discretion.

Ordinarily, the outcome of research is either to improve, disprove or maintain an existing assertion. Research can also be a means of generating or initiating knowledge in a certain unexplored area. To achieve this requires collaboration between the researcher and players in the industry. Citations may only be a metric to show the number of people who read and choose to make a case out of the concept and or context of an idea already presented. The only possible, if realistic way to measure implementations of research outcomes is to see policy change influenced by research recommendations.

Firstly, from my point of view there is the problem that the outcome of management research will frequently not used by companies. If I recall correct I read a paper that argues that only 1% of individuals in HR ever read a research paper in their area. Consequently, applying scientific rigour in their management action is missing.

Secondly, I am wondering what parameters you would define for measuring the impact of research in practice. Basically, in for-profit organisations they are interested to measure the performance increase. However, as mentioned by Rosenzweig (2014) measuring the drivers for performance is very difficult to understand.

Thirdly, I think you have also to implement a longitudinal measuring system rather than measuring only cross-sectional to understand the impact.

Finally, the measuring system should contain different parameters like a balanced score card.

Literature:

Rosenzweig, P. (2014). The halo effect:... and the eight other business delusions that deceive managers. Simon and Schuster.

Gideon Dzando Thank you so much for your valuable feedback. I absolutely agree with you that objective is to create knowledge and help policy makers. However Applied research is also required for practical issues like Customer Churn in telecom? How telecom companies can avoid it? etc.

In Telenor group we used Dr.Kumar Lifetime value calculation concept. Based on his articles and book "Managing customers for profit" we retained our customers and created campaigns which increased our customers life time value (spending) and life time span (duration with company) . I sent an email to Dr.Kumar and thanked him for his work. But I wonder, can there be any method where this contribution of Dr.kumar is either cited or counted on his profile ??

I believe some researchers work needs credit above & beyond citation, there must be a way to acknowledge that.

Roland Kaulbars Thank you so much for sharing the wonderful insights. I am reading the "The Halo Effect"book. The stats that only 1% of managers read scientific articles, I have also observed this in my little 7 years of experience in telecom sector.

Fortunately or or May be unfortunately, I am a customer experience student. Customer experience professionals are trained to always change the product, service and attitude as per the customer requirements. I personally, think, if I am writing something and industry is not reading it then I should change myself and there is something wrong in my writing.

Thirdly, on longitudinal study, I feel citations are also tracked over the years, then why not practical contributions. I used Dr.Kumars "Customer Lifetime Value: formula in Telenor group and followed his guidelines to improve the customer lifetime value. It worked for us, both customer time span & revenue increased based on the campaign ideas he gave in his book. today I see only the citation against his book, I am sure many people in industry used his book, but there is no record of that.

I am a big fan of Eric Rice. He is not an academician. I personally used his book to advice many startups. I suggest others to read his book , I always thanked him personally & public ally but there is no way in current author, writers ranking system that acknowledge the practical contributions. May be we can introduce something like this idea was implemented in this company in parallel with citations? I am not clear about the solution but i strongly feel some authors work deserve more than citations.

A quality research paper must have good citations and also has its impact practically in industry too. The research is like a river and our contribution like a tiny drop but must has its worth.

Dear Muhammad Farooq , I am fascinated by your thought-fullness. I also agree with you. Some of my best articles (as an author I know) have few citations. I wonder why?

Citations can be misleading because it is possible that a particular article may be cited by people who oppose it. So if the citations are the result of criticism, is it possible to state that there will be an impact in this case?

As for the practical contribution: how to know if someone has read and applied the ideas of our articles? Is it possible to have this control?

Citation means high scientific content, so my answer is yes.

Citations are an indicator academically or for research purposes .. but how far does the industry really benefit from our research papers is really questionable.

Thank you so much Syed Furqan Qadri Rajesh Jesudoss Hynes Carlos Chaym Emad Kamil Hussein Tabitha Durai for your valuable contributions.

Carlos Chaym Thank you for asking thought provoking questions. I hope Fateh Boutekkouk

If citations given as criticism still those citations are contributions?

How to know, if someone in industry applied a researchers given idea after reading a research paper or book?

Thank you Dr.Muhammad Farooq.

I just try to give my opinion on the first part of Dr.Carlos Chaym’s question.

The purpose of research is really an ongoing process of correcting and refining hypotheses, which should lead to the acceptance of certain scientific truths. I believe all our research findings are pointers towards these scientific truths and not the destination itself. With all the sophistication of the modern research equipment and the state-of-the-art facilities, still we would be able to perform better than our predecessor, who paper we would have cited. Our successor, who refers our article has a good chance to perform better than us. By this way, we come closer to the truth. Hence, though we may seem to oppose through citations, the real fact is we try to get a better glimpse of scientific truth by those citations.

Hence, I believe whether we propose or oppose, Citations are an indicator academically or for research purposes as Dr.Tabitha said.

High citation materials do not mean high practibality

The purpose and intention of research should be serving the mankind by one way or other. It might be an addition to existing body of knowledge, experimental results, views, information etc.

It is always questionable if paper with high cientific impact does not have industrial application.

We are all working to facilitate our life on the Earth.

Dear Dr Muhammad Farooq

Curious to know answer for question raised by you ( below )

How to know, if someone in industry applied a researchers given idea after reading a research paper or book?

From my experience , Academicians are mainly of two types : theory builders and applied researchers. As citations have become a KPI /measure in academic world , the academicians look for more citations - which depends on factors like popularity of topic among researchers- when more people are doing research on much beaten topic there is possibility of more citations. Use of this would be less from practical point of view .If an academicians take a creative topic for research that demands guts, less number of people are doing research on the topic - so less citations.

With ref to your main point /question , where is time for industry people to read our articles ? They may read if we are connected by working with them on any consulting assignments.This needs support from environment where we work .Normally practitioners read reference books ( written by practitioners) for new ideas .

Business dailies, magazines and reference books generally read by them so we need to read , research and quote then only there is possibility of use of our research to industry .

@

Thank you all respected researchers for your valuable feedback. Masthan Devalapalli Thank you for addressing such important aspect of citations, that if someone is working on old concepts, chances are he will get more citations. the ones who are working on new topics are expected to get less citations. Now this can be a very big concern for beginners like me.

Still I am exploring the answer, How we can evaluate the academic contributions of someone, In my area of Marketing & Management sciences, I see no significant contribution from researchers. Everyone is studying Job satisfaction, Diversity etc. No one in industry care about there research, but still people are publishing for the sake of publishing.

I believe, any research paper or article true impact starts once its published, while most of the writers think thats end goal.

Thank you Sir Erik Cuevas Atta ur Rahman Emad Kamil Hussein Masthan Devalapalli Rajesh Jesudoss Hynes

is there any journal which publishes articles or views of researchers on impact of research? I would love to hear from you. Masthan Devalapalli Emad Kamil Hussein Erik Cuevas Atta ur Rahman Rajesh Jesudoss Hynes Daniel Goldman

No, only citations are not enough. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to measure the impact of specific research.

Laura Bulgariu Thank your response, what else can be the aspects to measure the impact of specific research. We can explore the measurement once parameters of evaluation are confirmed. I mean what can be possible aspects of measuring impact of any specific research, may be we can say that, its reads ( Because now we can also calculate reads, thanks to technology, we can see that practitioners dont cite but they read, so we can assume the practitioners are reading it)... May be we can say on every download or read there should be one additional check by every publisher that reader should mention his occupation like he is a researcher or practitioner? May the published can add like or dislike of articles? Maybe the readers should be requested the implications of research for them??

What are your views on it?

www.scimagojr.com

Practical and clinical implications and recommendations that serve our community are the most beneficial and significant impact of our research.

Eventhough citations are important, it cannot be used as the sole factor or indicator. Opposing school of thoughts can cite articles to make a case for themselves. However, i think practical implications and how the study solves basic issues or impact positively on local communities are better indicators or measurement parameters

Isaac Sarfo Thank you so much for your valuable response. In addition, I would like to ask, How to quantify this impact or problem solving ability of any research? any journal you know which works on it?

Because, I feel measuring practical part is difficult. Therefore, everyone is only using citations in KPIs and ranking of academicians.

Academic citation and industry application both needed

Dear Muhammad Farooq

I think although citations are important, it cannot be used as the sole indicator. Our implications and recommendations for practice and applying of our results in the community are the most beneficial and significant impact of our research. However, as some scholars have said it is very difficult to measure the impact of specific research. And the number of citations to our articles alone cannot demonstrate the effectiveness of our research.

Kind regards

My dear Farooq, citations are an effective way of spreading significant findings and suggestions, leading to the practical application side, if not in our lifetime, maybe after that. So cheer up.