27 June 2023
The finalists for this year’s ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing have been announced. The well-established award recognises any new product or project that is innovative and of significant value to scholarly communication. BMJ Impact Analytics, the first impact tool focused on health and social care, is one of the finalists.
Research that improves patients' lives matters deeply to the funders, institutions and researchers who dedicate their resources to medical and health research. But evaluating the impact of this research is traditionally measured by standard scholarly metrics in the absence of more targeted analysis that specifically relates to health improvement.
Developed by BMJ in collaboration with pioneering start-up Overton, BMJ Impact Analytics makes it easy to find, track, and share the real-world impact of health and medical research. It uniquely shows direct links to patient outcomes (decision support tools) and provides citations in context. Funders, institutions, and researchers can now effectively measure their influence; by tracking where their research is cited in clinical guidance and health policy worldwide.
BMJ Impact Analytics combines Overton's data knowledge with BMJ's health expertise in one powerful tool that covers the breadth of the best available medical sources. It contains up to 50% more data on health-related outputs than similar products to help users:
- identify the real-world impact of their medical research
- make funding decisions confidently
- gain insights into how their research has influenced medical practice
- target their research funding to influence health outcomes.
Dr Allison Lang, Publishing Director at BMJ said: "I'm delighted that BMJ Impact Analytics is shortlisted for The ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing 2023. Medical and health research impact is about improving the lives of patients and the public. It matters deeply to funders, institutions and researchers but is time-consuming and difficult to track. BMJ Impact Analytics is the first tool to focus on the needs of the medical research community. It advances how real-world impact is measured by showing the impact of medical research on patients and the population"
Euan Adie, Founder and Director of Overton, added: ”BMJ Impact Analytics was developed in partnership with medical departments and funders, combining the data they need with an interface that makes it easy to find and use. We're delighted to be collaborating with BMJ and taking this important next step towards supporting a healthy, responsible impact culture in research."