Research impact assessment. Principles and applications to proposed, ongoing, and completed projects.

Three generic types of RIA approaches used by the federal government were described (retrospective, peer review, and quantitative methods). Peer review is the method used most frequently. All methods examined have their unique shortcomings. A fundamental problem is that many research impact targets exist. These include impacts on the research field itself, allied research fields, technology, systems, operations, education, etc. The strength of the specific impact of the research on each of these targets and the weighting assigned to the value of the research impact on each of these targets depends on the technical, organizational, and personal perspectives of the reviewers. Much of the research evaluation community has come to believe that simultaneous use of many techniques is the preferred approach. However, there is little evidence of multiple technique use by the federal government in impact assessment, especially bibliometrics to support peer review. This area is ripe for exploitation.