The National Institute of Health uses an overall impact score to assess incoming applications for funding. The reviewers assess for “the likelihood of the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved.”[1] However, impact can also include areas outside of academia, such as in healthcare, environmental, economic, policy cultural, etc. Impact is important because it focuses on the purpose of research instead of the process.[2] There are two types of impact: academic and comprehensive.
Academic Impact is traditionally measured metrics of an author’s or journal’s influence in the scientific community. For example, author’s have an h-index that incorporate the number of articles and citations they have received. Also, journals have an impact factor.
Comprehensive Impact is the “broad impact of scientific research upon human society.”[3]