Eleanor Jackson-Bowers, PHC RIS
Early findings
How does a large funded research project affect changes in its environment? PHC RIS is in the midst of a project in which we are interviewing the Chief Investigators and end users of four large research projects, funded by either NHMRC, PHCRED or GPEP to find out. Some unanticipated findings are emerging. One is that there is no correlation between the publications from a project and the changes it leads to in its environment. One of the highest impact projects we have found has had no peer reviewed publications at all.
The way a project impacts its environment is more related to the involvement of users of the research right from the beginning, from identifying a need for research, formulating the research question, as participants in the research or in joining advisory committees. Presentations to all sorts of groups, practitioners, professional bodies, policy makers and people from NGOs all help to get the word out there and consumers are a neglected group with influence, which is often forgotten.
Measuring the impact of university research on policy and practice is going to be a feature of the new Research Quality Framework (RQF) which will be introduced soon, and we are hoping to be able to have some impact ourselves on how this proceeds in our field. Early indications are that there will also be a number of measures of quality and that among these will be measures of the citation rate of publications derived from projects. There is no firm indication how this will be measured. However, given that our findings show that publications are not the best way of measuring quality in primary health care research, it is important that we get it right.
The qualitative data are still being analysed. A report, available by the end of the year, will be posted on our website www.phcris.org.au
For further information, contact:
Eleanor Jackson-Bowers
Research Associate
Ph: 08 8204 3136
E: eleanor.jackson-bowers@flinders.edu.au
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