Emerald Workbook Offers Busitema Researchers Practical Ways to Measure Research Impact
6 November 2026
Busitema University researchers working on innovations such as the four-chamber silo for agricultural produce and the pilot plastic-waste road can benefit from a free workbook developed to help researchers plan, communicate and assess the practical effects of their work.
The Impact Literacy Workbook, highlighted in recent guidance from Emerald Publishing, provides exercises that help researchers identify who could benefit from their findings, how those findings might be used and what evidence would demonstrate meaningful change beyond academic publications.
The guidance is relevant to Busitema University's commitment to research that addresses community and industry needs. The University's Research, Innovations and Dissemination Policy promotes the application of research findings, the transfer of knowledge and the development of practical solutions to societal problems.
While journal publications and citations remain important measures of academic achievement, they do not necessarily show whether research findings have influenced practices, improved services or informed decisions outside the University.
For example, Busitema University's work on agricultural storage technologies presents opportunities to examine how innovations perform beyond the development stage. Researchers could investigate whether farmers adopt improved storage methods, what challenges they encounter and whether the technologies help reduce post-harvest losses. Such assessments would provide evidence of practical benefits rather than relying solely on the successful development of an innovation.
Similarly, research involving environmentally friendly construction materials could examine the durability, cost and suitability of new technologies under local conditions. Findings could then inform decisions by engineers, local authorities and other potential users.
These examples illustrate the distinction between producing research and demonstrating its effects. Developing a technology, publishing findings or conducting a community demonstration may be important achievements, but establishing wider impact requires evidence of how the work has been used and what has changed as a result.
Developed by Dr Julie Bayley of the University of Lincoln and Dr David Phipps of York University, the workbook guides researchers through identifying problems, defining expected outcomes, engaging stakeholders and selecting suitable methods for collecting evidence.
One of its key recommendations is to consider research impact at the planning stage. Researchers are encouraged to involve relevant communities, professionals and institutions early enough for their experiences and needs to inform the study. This approach can help ensure that research questions address practical concerns and that findings are presented in forms people can understand and use.
At Busitema University, this could involve agricultural researchers working with farmers and extension officers, public health researchers engaging healthcare workers, or engineering teams consulting potential users of their innovations. Such engagement can also help researchers identify realistic measures of success.
The guidance further encourages researchers to communicate their findings beyond academic journals. Depending on the intended audience, practical demonstrations, policy briefs, community discussions and accessible research summaries may be more useful than technical publications alone.
For Master's and PhD students, the workbook offers a way to strengthen research proposals by identifying potential beneficiaries, expected changes and methods of evaluation before fieldwork begins. Academic staff and research teams can also use its exercises when planning projects, engaging partners and documenting outcomes for research reports.
Researchers should, however, distinguish between changes they hope to achieve and results they can demonstrate. Evidence may take time to emerge, and not every research finding will lead directly to an immediate practical application.
The workbook is freely available and includes exercises for developing a research impact plan. Busitema University researchers and postgraduate students can download the Impact Literacy Workbook from Emerald Publishing and apply its guidance to their research projects.
Emerald's Research Impact resource page provides further guidance on developing research impact skills, planning research outcomes and drawing on institutional support.
