Impact of research on society

When assessing scientific research the impact of research work is mostly measured by citations and the impact factor of the journals. However, the societal impact is an important factor in evaluation of a research.

During grant writing for funding there is a need to show the impact of research on society. There is a need to define and measure this impact and also the responsibility of a scientist towards society.

Currently the global financial crisis has changed how countries give priority to fund research programs. There has been a push towards science which benefits the society, yet devising reliable tools to predict and measure the social impact of research remains a major challenge. The societal impact of research is an increasingly important factor in attracting public funding and support of basic research and it will provide better qualitative and quantitative data on which funding agencies could base their decisions.

Research is paid for by taxpayer’s money and should in return benefit the society by improving the quality and sustainability of life of common people. Discoveries with commercial applications have obvious financial impacts. Medical discoveries sometimes have impacts quantifiable in terms of lives saved. But much of science has impacts that are difficult to define, particularly when the benefits are related to quality of life or some other dimension of societal development.

If a researcher find outs a new medicinal plant for diabetes and gets published in high impact journal but if this knowledge is not shared with general public then what is the benefit of such kind of research. Therefore there should be a communication between scientists and end users of research and the final outcomes should be shared with public with responsibility.

A lot of money gets wasted if the research project doesn’t comes to a final conclusion originally suggested by the researcher, so there is also a necessity to monitor such programs and scientists should be made liable for such research.

Generally the research findings don’t come in to notice of common public or comes very slowly. Research articles are generally published in subscription journals or hard-to-access book chapters generally in English language which is hard to understand by general public in India.

Important scientific findings should also be published in common language of the general people. This will help the general public to understand what is going on in the field of research.

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