What Evidence Do I Need for My Research? A Step-by-Step Guide

One of the most frequent questions we encounter from researchers is, 'What evidence should I use to support my research impact?' While seemingly straightforward, this inquiry requires a nuanced approach, delving into the core of your research goals and impact. 

Understanding your research's potential outcomes is fundamental to identifying relevant evidence. In this blog, Helen Duffy, Senior Impact Consultant breaks the process down into manageable steps.

Step 1: Defining Your Research's Impact (Outcomes)

The first crucial step involves clarifying your research's intended impact or outcomes. This isn't always immediately clear, it’s a real skill to be able to articulate your research and its impact in a few sentences without being reductive. 

To define your impact, consider these key questions:

• What are the potential consequences and benefits of your research activities and outputs?

• What are your primary motivations for conducting this research?

• How does your work relate to and benefit the broader society?

Without a clear understanding of your desired impact, selecting appropriate evidence becomes a more daunting task. What we are trying to avoid here is a scattergun approach!

Step 2: Outlining Pathways to Impact and Activities

This section requires you to break down the journey to achieving your desired outcomes and impact.

Once you've defined what you want to achieve (your impact), you need to map out how you're going to get there. This involves identifying the key activities and steps that will lead to those outcomes (pathways to impact).

What specific actions will you take to achieve your research impact? These might include disseminating findings or facilitating workshops; engaging with stakeholders; developing resources or tools; or influencing policy decisions.

Step 3: Identifying Indicators of Success

Once you've defined your impact, and the journey needed to get there, the next step is to identify indicators. These are observable signs that demonstrate the occurrence of your desired outcomes and impact.

Examples of indicators could include:

• Changes in policy or practice

• Increased public awareness or understanding

• Development of new technologies or methodologies

• Testimonials from stakeholders on how research has impacted their work/life

Step 4: Practical Considerations: Feasibility and Proportionality

When selecting indicators, it's vital to consider the feasibility of data collection. This involves assessing your available resources and avoiding overly ambitious plans.

Ensure your Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) efforts are proportionate to the scale and scope of your research.

Planning is essential to avoid last-minute scrambles for evidence, such as hastily gathered testimonials (see this recent blog from WCL Associate, Kerry Leslie - The Importance of Timely Testimonials for more on this topic). It’s a good idea to have that conversation early on about what you might need from partners or collaborators, conversations with them might also provide a perspective on what your impact is and how you’ll evidence it.

While pre-planned evidence is crucial, it's also important to acknowledge that some impacts may emerge unexpectedly. Be prepared to capture these emergent outcomes as well.

Step 5: Evidence-Based Impact: Bridging Research and Real-World Change

The impact of research extends beyond academic citations. It's about demonstrating tangible change in the real world. However, the path from research to impact is rarely linear. The type of impact you seek dictates the evidence you need, but it's crucial to understand the complexities involved, including:

The Interplay of Impact and Evidence:

Here the desired impact guides evidence selection. A mixed-methods approach (combining quantitative and qualitative data) is essential for a comprehensive understanding. This approach functions as a "mini-research" project, tailored to the specific impact being measured.

Types of Evidence and Corresponding Impacts:

• Policy Impact: Evidence includes policy documents, meeting minutes, government reports, and testimonials from policymakers.

• Technological Impact: Evidence includes patent applications, product sales data, user feedback, and industry adoption rates.

• Social Impact: Evidence includes surveys, interviews, case studies, community feedback, and documented changes in behaviour or attitudes.

Addressing the Attribution Challenge:

Real-world impact is often influenced by multiple factors, making direct attribution difficult.

Strategies for demonstrating your research's specific contribution can include:

• Logic Models: Creating a framework to illustrate the causal pathway from research to impact.

• Triangulation: Using multiple data sources to validate findings.

• Contribution Analysis: Focusing on the unique and significant aspects of your research that led to the observed impact.

• Narrative Development: Constructing compelling stories and case studies that highlight the role of your research.

In summary, only by systematically defining your impact, journey or pathways to impact, identifying indicators, and considering feasibility can you begin to address the question of 'What evidence do I need to collect to demonstrate the impact of my research?'

If you'd like to know how you can develop a focused approach to building a sustainable habit of evidence collection, take a look at our new Impact Integrators online training course, Evidencing Engagement and Impact.