The reasons why you have joined Imperial College to do a doctoral degree are multiple, among which probably are your love for your discipline, your curiosity and passion for learning new things, your interest in working with other brilliant researchers and academics, and that you want to make a contribution to society and the world.

There are many areas in which you can make an impact with your research, and it is important that you start early to learn about the different strategies for creating impact from your research to benefit society, the environment and the economy.

Imperial is committed to moving beyond outdated measures of research impact. Researchers need to think of impact as being not just about the citation of journal articles and start using new ways to achieve and measure impact.

• One key way is to practice Open Research. Evidence suggests that research that is freely accessible and reusable gets more visibility and impact. The Library’s pages on Open Research at Imperial are a good starting point for information and tips.
• Other good ways to create impact include teaching/mentoring junior colleagues to build experience, building collaborations, and participating in outreach/public engagement activities.

 The Graduate School has a wide range of courses provided by experts across the College to support you on learning about impact and building it from the early stages of your research, some of them are:

• Understanding Impact and How to Achieve It
• Bibliometrics and Demonstrating Academic Impact
• Core Public Engagement Masterclass
• Policy Engagement Part 1 - Policymaking Process
• Policy Engagement Part 2 - Influencing Policy

In the Library you can book to talk to the Bibliometrics service for tips on how you can record and track your impact using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative indicators.