Maximizing the Impacts of Academic Research

Patrick Dunleavy is Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. In addition to his disciplinary work, he is well known for his successful guide, Authoring a PhD (Red Globe Press, 2003) and for the LSE Writing for Research blog. His Twitter feed @Write4Research has 68,000 followers from many countries and disciplines. His widely cited 2014 research study of The Impact of the Social Sciences (co-authored with Simon Bastow and Jane Tinkler) provided part of the foundation for this book.Jane Tinkler is Senior Prize Manager at the Nine Dots Prize for innovation in the social sciences. She is also studying for a PhD in public policy at Stirling University. She previously managed LSE Public Policy Group for many years and co-authored The Impact of the Social Sciences (2014). She has also been a researcher in the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, and before London School of Economics worked at UCL and Birkbeck College, London.

• PART 1: ACADEMIC IMPACTSChapter 1: How citations work1.1 The role citations play1.2 Citation rates across disciplines1.3 Time lags and citation profiles1.4 What shapes researchers' overall citation profiles across their careers?1.5 Handling self-citationChapter 2: Tracking and understanding your citations2.1 The 'legacy' citation tracking systems2.2 Google Scholar's tracking systems2.3 Web-based citation plus full text2.4 Altmetrics2.5 Digital metrics and academic citing behavioursChapter 3: Planning journal articles3.1 Getting papers from research projects3.2 Working with co-authors and research teams3.3 Deciding where to submit an article3.4 Understanding the peer review process3.5 Maintaining a flow of research and papersChapter 4: Crafting better journal articles4.1 Choosing an article structure suitable for each discipline4.2 Writing better -avoiding 'academese'4.3 Helping other researchers to cite you4.4 Writing informative titles and abstracts for journal articlesChapter 5: Producing books and chapters5.1 Books as academic outputs and their citation rates5.2 Getting your book known5.3 Edited books5.4 Chapters in booksPART 2: ACADEMIC AND EXTERNAL IMPACTSChapter 6: Applied work, 'grey' literature and choosing across projects6.1 Applied work6.2 'Grey' literature and other publications6.3 A choice canvass for research and publications optionsChapter 7: Digital era scholarship- bigger, better, shorter, faster, free7.1 Bigger data7.2 Bigger search7.3 Better communicated7.4 Shorter publication forms7.5 Faster research7.6 Free access and open access to knowledgeChapter 8: Improving impacts at department and university level8.1 Committing to knowledge exchange8.2 Choosing a blogging/digital strategy8.3 Integrating department and university impact efforts8.4 University leadership and information flowsPART 3: EXTERNAL IMPACTSChapter 9: Impacts, intermediaries and academic purpose9.1 What an external impact is (and is not)9.2 Academia and modern professions9.3 The impacts interfaceChapter 10: Working with other organizations. 10.1 Which academics can link to outside bodies. 10.2 The variety of university links to businesses and other organizations10.3 How working with outside organizations can benefit research10.4 The costs and possible risks of working externallyChapter 11: Public engagement and impacts11.1 Intuitive explanations, research narrative and 'maths dread'11.2 Who can do public engagement?11.3 The benefits of getting involved11.4 Mitigating costs and potential risksAfterword: How the impacts agenda boosts academic progress and democratizes knowledgeReferences.