Research Impact

According to the Metrics Toolkit, policy citations can indicate how research has influenced policy or practice in a particular field. Research is typically cited in public policy documents for three reasons:

1. To inform policy decisions.
2. To address values and interests or symbolically to support, justify or refute predetermined positions.
3. To influence the policy climate and agenda-setting by illuminating, supporting and challenging existing paradigms.

Be mindful that:

• Policy documents tend to cite journal articles more than other documents.
• Research and researchers may influence policy and decision making in indirect ways that are not always trackable via policy citations.
• Policy documents tend to cite older rather than newer research.
• Policy mentions of scientific articles are relatively scarce.
• Specific fields such as economics, climate science, medicine, dentistry, and health are cited in public policy documents at higher rates than other fields.
• Citations in policy documents are subject to the same biases as other publications.
• Documents tracked by metrics providers may depend upon the openness and language of the policy documents and the provider’s awareness of policy sources.

Sage Policy Profiles is a free tool that enables researchers to discover how their work is impacting policy. It is powered by Overton. For individual researchers, interested in knowing more about your possible impact on policy, we recommend this tool to answer these questions. More information on this tool is available here. 

The University of Alberta has access to Overton, a tool that searches and provides access to documents from government agencies, think tanks, and non-governmental organisations. It also provides information on the documents that these documents cite, making it a resource for policy citations. This tool is suitable for larger project looking at policy citations for multiple authors or research areas. However, access is restricted and will be time bound by the length of your project. If you require access, please email researchimpact@ualberta with a brief description of your project.

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