Development of a practical tool to measure the impact of publications on the society based on focus group discussions with scientists.
Development of a practical tool to measure the impact of publications on the society based on focus group discussions with scientists.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1186/1471-2458-11-588
复制
发表时间：
2011-07-25
影响因子：
4.5
通讯作者：
Maier M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Niederkrotenthaler T;Dorner TE;Maier M
补充科学影响因素的“社会影响因素”将有助于更全面地评价科学研究。为了开发一个实用的评估工具，必须了解科学家对如何衡量社会影响因素的看法。这项定性研究提出了一个实用的工具，以衡量出版物的社会影响的基础上，24个生物医学科学家在维也纳医科大学2008年5月至2009年5月的8个焦点小组讨论的发展。主题集中在（1）理想工具的特征，（2）评估中应考虑的标准，以及（3）识别实际陷阱。在一次反复的工作中，涉及到对科学论文反复应用草拟的工具，评估标准得到了完善。对6名担任公共卫生领导职务的外部专家进行了一次小规模的调查，以评估该工具的可理解性、相关性和实用性，并取得了可接受的结果。所开发的工具包括三个量化维度，即（1）出版物的目的，（2）作者为翻译其研究成果所做的努力，以及（3）（a）完成翻译的区域的大小（区域、国家或国际）、（B）其地位（初步还是长期）和（c）翻译的目标群体（个人、人口亚组、总人口）。与科学家的焦点小组讨论表明，出版物的社会影响因素应考虑出版物在广泛的非科学领域的影响，但也要考虑出版物背后的动机，以及作者为翻译其研究结果所做的努力。该工具为该领域的进一步研究和实际应用提供了一些有价值的见解。
A 'societal impact factor' that complements the scientific impact factor would contribute to a more comprehensive evaluation of scientific research. In order to develop a practical tool for its assessment, it is important to learn about perceptions of scientists on how to measure a societal impact factor. This qualitative study presents the development of a practical tool to measure the societal impact of publications based on 8 focus group discussions with 24 biomedical scientists at the Medical University Vienna between May 2008 and May 2009. Topics focused on (1) features of an ideal tool, (2) criteria that should be considered in the assessment, and (3) the identification of practical pitfalls. In an iterative exercise involving the repeated application of the drafted tool to scientific papers, criteria for the assessment were refined. A small-scale exercise to evaluate the tool in terms of its comprehensibility, relevance and practicability was conducted using questionnaires for 6 external experts in leading positions of public health, and yielded acceptable results. The tool developed consists of three quantitative dimensions, that is (1) the aim of a publication, (2) the efforts of the authors to translate their research results, and, if translation was accomplished, (3) (a) the size of the area where translation was accomplished (regional, national or international), (b) its status (preliminary versus permanent) and (c) the target group of the translation (individuals, subgroup of population, total population). Focus group discussions with scientists suggested that the societal impact factor of a publication should consider the effect of the publication in a wide set of non-scientific areas, but also the motivation behind the publication, and efforts by the authors to translate their findings. The proposed tool provides some valuable insights for further research and practical applications in the topic area.