We are committed to
supporting meaningful,
real world impact.

Real Impact is far more than citations. It’s about making a difference. It’s communities joining together to find ways to make changes. Impact is the provable effects of research in the real world.

We appreciate it’s not always easy for academics and researchers to see the impact of their work. That’s why we’ve launched ‘Real Impact’ to aid the cause and call on research communities to come together and break down barriers.

So, join our conversations, have your say in our blogs, read our toolkits, and download our resources to help bring your research to life. Together we can make a difference.

Real Impact Manifesto

We are committed to supporting meaningful, real world impact.

Emerald will now lead the publishing charge towards meaningful impact.

For over 50 years, research impact has sat at the heart of Emerald’s business. Emerald’s core ethos is making a difference through research, and we are proud of our heritage supporting the communication of research for policy and practice.

With a sector increasingly full of pressure and expectation, we recognise the challenges faced by colleagues in connecting research to impact. We also recognise that traditional markers of influence, such as citations, are not sufficient to tell the story of impact. Emerald feels strongly that we have a key role and responsibility in not only supporting the impact agenda, but also in challenging outdated approaches to measuring e­ffects.

Emerald will now lead the publishing charge towards meaningful impact. We will continue to work with our global author network to publish research which makes a difference and invest further in the research community to support real world change.

Emerald commits to:

1. Support the community of practice to overcome barriers to impact, working in partnership with key agencies to strengthen connections between research and society.
2. Challenge simplistic and outdated approaches to impact, shifting beyond metrics and celebrating impact of all shapes and sizes.
3. Drive impact literacy in the research sector – including within Emerald itself – championing knowledge and skills development and developing new tools and innovative approaches.

Join us in making a di­fference.