(25 July 2016) John Sack of the HighWire Press adds to the ‘impact’ debate by describing “resonance”. He notes that resonance facets include:
- research resonance – which readers largely agree is legitimately measured by citations;
- reader resonance – which can be measured by usage (downloads or views, for example) or some scholarly altmetrics;
- societal resonance – which can be measured by some altmetrics attuned to public engagement. Authors, societies and funders now care about this.
All of these and more are part of understanding how resonance develops. But, the more measures we have, the more tempting it is to fall back on a single number like the Journal Impact Factor – because looking at multiple facets is complex.
That’s why the HighWire Press launched Impact Vizor in 2015: to provide simpler, visual ways to look at research resonance, and not reduce it to the Journal Impact Factors. Today several publishers use Impact Vizor to analyze their publishing programs to understand how their articles, sections and journals resonate with their different audiences and to make decisions. Impact Vizor helps them see the facets and uncover answers to strategic and practical questions. A few are described in this article which can be read in full on the HighWire blogsite.
