HE-R05 — Research Impact and Dissemination

Course Code: HE-R05  |  School: School of Higher Education  |  Cluster: Research Management

Level: Intermediate  |  Estimated duration: 6 weeks (approximately 40 hours)  |  Language: English  |  Certificate: Professional Certificate (non-degree)  |  Format: Self-paced with AI support under human supervision

Overview

Research impact has become a funding condition and an evaluation category, and it has also become a genre of institutional fiction. Impact case studies routinely claim causal influence over policy changes that had many causes, and the incentive to overstate is strong because the assessment reward is real. This course teaches learners to make impact claims that would survive hostile scrutiny.

The conceptual foundation is Carol Weiss’s account of the many meanings of research utilisation, which distinguishes the rare instrumental case in which a decision follows directly from a finding from the far more common conceptual case in which research gradually alters how a problem is understood. Paul Cairney’s work on the politics of evidence-based policy is used to dispel the linear model in which good evidence produces good policy.

The applied component covers the full dissemination repertoire: peer-reviewed publication and its strategic choices, policy briefs, media engagement, stakeholder relationships and public communication. Learners produce a pathway to impact and, critically, an evidence collection plan, since impact that was not documented as it occurred generally cannot be demonstrated afterwards.

Learning outcomes

On completion, a successful learner will be able to:

1. Distinguish academic, societal, economic and policy impact and apply the appropriate evidence standard to each.
2. Apply theories of research utilisation to explain realistically how research influences decisions.
3. Design a pathway to impact with identified stakeholders, engagement mechanisms and plausible causal steps.
4. Select and execute dissemination channels appropriate to the audience and the claim being made.
5. Write for non-academic audiences, including policy briefs and media pieces, without distorting the findings.
6. Design an impact evidence collection plan that captures indicators contemporaneously.
7. Assess impact claims critically, identifying attribution weaknesses and overstatement.

Who this course is for

Researchers at any career stage, impact and knowledge exchange officers, research communications staff, and academic leaders preparing institutional impact submissions. Also relevant to policy analysts who commission or use research.

Prerequisites

Learners should bring a completed or ongoing research project with which to work. HE-R01 Research Management Fundamentals provides helpful context.

Syllabus

Module 1 — What Impact Is and What It Is Not

Impact vocabulary is used loosely enough that reach, engagement, dissemination and influence are frequently conflated. This module separates them and sets the standard of evidence each requires.

Lessons. 1.1 Academic, societal, economic, policy and cultural impact  ·  1.2 Reach and significance as assessment dimensions  ·  1.3 Outputs, outcomes and impacts distinguished  ·  1.4 Reading published impact case studies critically

Deliverable. A diagnostic note critiquing one published impact case study and identifying its weakest attribution claim.

Module 2 — How Research Actually Influences Decisions

The linear model in which evidence enters and policy follows is not supported by the evidence on evidence use. This module replaces it with a more accurate and more useful account.

Lessons. 2.1 Weiss on the many meanings of research utilisation  ·  2.2 Conceptual, instrumental, symbolic and tactical use  ·  2.3 The politics of evidence-based policy making  ·  2.4 Knowledge brokers, intermediaries and windows of opportunity

Deliverable. An analytical brief tracing how one piece of research influenced one real decision, distinguishing the type of use involved.

Module 3 — Designing a Pathway to Impact

A pathway to impact is a theory of change applied to research, and it must specify who will do something differently and why they would. The module builds it with that discipline.

Lessons. 3.1 Stakeholder mapping: interest, influence and access  ·  3.2 Theory of change for research influence  ·  3.3 Engagement mechanisms and their appropriate timing  ·  3.4 Identifying and stating the assumptions the pathway depends on

Deliverable. A design artefact: a full pathway to impact for one research project with stakeholder map, causal steps and declared assumptions.

Module 4 — Publication and Dissemination Strategy

Where and how research is published shapes who encounters it, and the choices involve real trade-offs between prestige, speed, reach and openness. The module makes those trade-offs explicit.

Lessons. 4.1 Journal selection, open access routes and preprints  ·  4.2 Conference, workshop and practitioner-audience venues  ·  4.3 Predatory publishing and how to recognise it  ·  4.4 Sequencing outputs across academic and non-academic audiences

Deliverable. An evaluation report setting out a dissemination strategy with justified venue choices and an explicit trade-off analysis.

Module 5 — Writing for Non-Academic Audiences and Evidencing Impact

Policy briefs and media pieces fail when they are compressed papers rather than documents written for a decision. The module also builds the contemporaneous evidence collection without which impact cannot later be demonstrated.

Lessons. 5.1 Policy brief structure and the discipline of the recommendation  ·  5.2 Media engagement, framing and the risk of distortion  ·  5.3 Impact indicators and contemporaneous evidence capture  ·  5.4 Testimonials, citation in policy documents and documented use

Deliverable. An implementation plan comprising a two-page policy brief drawn from real research plus an impact evidence collection schedule.

Module 6 — Capstone: An Impact Strategy and Case

The capstone combines a forward-looking impact strategy with a retrospective impact case, and is assessed for the honesty of its attribution as much as for its ambition.

Lessons. 6.1 Finalising the pathway  ·  6.2 Preparing audience-specific outputs  ·  6.3 Building the evidence plan  ·  6.4 Writing an attribution-honest case

Deliverable. A 2,500-word impact strategy and case for one research project, including pathway, stakeholder analysis, dissemination plan, evidence schedule and a candid attribution statement.

Assessment

Pass mark 70 per cent. All assessed components must be attempted. Every mark in this course is issued by a human assessor; no assessment outcome is generated automatically.

Rubric criteria

Each assessed artefact is marked against four criteria at four levels (distinction, pass with merit, pass, fail).

1. Attribution honesty. Causal claims are proportionate to the evidence and alternative explanations are acknowledged.
2. Audience command. Outputs are genuinely written for their intended readers and would function in those settings.
3. Strategic coherence. Stakeholders, mechanisms and outputs form a plausible and internally consistent pathway.
4. Evidential foresight. The evidence collection plan would in fact capture what the eventual case would need.

Reading list

Core. Weiss, C. H. (1979) ‘The Many Meanings of Research Utilization’, Public Administration Review, 39(5), pp. 426–431.

• Nutley, S. M., Walter, I. and Davies, H. T. O. (2007) Using Evidence: How Research Can Inform Public Services. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Cairney, P. (2016) The Politics of Evidence-Based Policy Making. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Bornmann, L. (2013) ‘What Is Societal Impact of Research and How Can It Be Assessed? A Literature Survey’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(2), pp. 217–233.
• Reed, M. S. (2018) The Research Impact Handbook, 2nd edn. Huntly: Fast Track Impact.
• Hicks, D., Wouters, P., Waltman, L., de Rijcke, S. and Rafols, I. (2015) ‘Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics’, Nature, 520(7548), pp. 429–431.

Academic integrity and use of AI

Generative AI may be used in this course as a drafting, translation and critique aid, and its use must be disclosed. Every submission carries a short use-of-AI statement naming the tools used, the tasks they performed and the checks the learner applied to the output. Using AI to fabricate data, invent sources, impersonate an interview participant, or produce an artefact the learner cannot explain in a live viva is prohibited.

All citations are verified before submission; a reference that cannot be located by the assessor is treated as fabricated. Fabrication, plagiarism and undisclosed ghost-authorship result in failure of the component and referral to the academic integrity panel. Marks in this course are issued by human assessors, and any learner may be asked to defend a submission orally before a mark is confirmed.