Overton has launched a new resource to support researchers and improve how they find and measure research influence in policy.
We are thrilled to introduce our latest resource: a comprehensive guide designed to help you unlock the full potential of the Overton Index. This guide provides tips, tricks and insights that show you how to effectively and comprehensively track research influence in policy. It’s a powerful tool for enhancing your impact tracking capabilities and gaining a fuller understanding of how your research influences policy.
Whether your aim is to create detailed impact reports, elevate your professional profile, or gain a deeper insight into the policy landscape, our guide provides step-by-step instructions to uncover as much evidence of influence as possible.
What can you learn?
Research and researchers can shape decision-making through a variety of channels and processes. The Overton Index is designed to help you discover these pathways, revealing the diverse ways scholarly ideas influence policy. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s inside the guide:
- Tracking policy citations and mentions
- Direct citations are just the beginning. We index the full text of all policy documents to allow us to detect where individuals and institutions are mentioned, highlighting the broader influence of your research even when specific papers aren’t cited.
- Unpicking citation pathways
- It’s uncommon for scholarly papers to be directly referenced in government policy. Often, research is ‘translated’ and repackaged by intermediaries like think tanks, creating a complex attribution chain. Our guide shows you how to link your scholarly ideas to real-world decision-making through policy-policy citations.
- Evaluating your findings
- Navigating research impact metrics can be challenging. Our guide includes general rules of thumb to ensure you draw meaningful conclusions, no matter what you’re using Overton Index to do.
Stand out in a competitive landscape
This guide is tailored for academics, program managers, policy analysts, and research managers. It will enhance your ability to uncover the real-world impact of research and provide compelling evidence of your contributions to knowledge production.
We look forward to seeing how you use this new guide to ensure your contributions are recognised.
