Analytics of Research Visibility and Impact (RVI): Assessment of Faculty RVI Knowledge and Practices

After a successful campus-wide initiative to increase research output by 50% within 5 years, the University of Houston (UH) Libraries recognized the need to establish a role and services dedicated to providing faculty, researchers, and administrators with strategies and resources to determine the impact of research taking place at the university. In an effort to determine needs related to RVI, the Research Visibility and Impact Coordinator conducted a needs assessment of high-level stakeholders to gain insight into their needs and expectations. The RVI Coordinator later surveyed faculty to learn more about what they knew of RVI and associated practices and which of these practices faculty were using. The data obtained not only determined the Libraries’ new programs and services to train and develop users’ RVI competencies, but is also contributing to the university’s current efforts to become a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and to rise in national rankings. The analytics of this data is informing decisions that a collaborative group of stakeholders from the Libraries, the provost’s office, and the Division of Research is making to aid with increasing the visibility of research taking place on campus and determining the impact of the research through a variety of metrics to meet AAU and ranking agencies’ measures. This session aims to present details of this work to generate discussion of how libraries in a similar position can move forward the RVI services and collaborations they are establishing.