Abstract

What are the results of public investment in research from which society actually derives a benefit? The scope of research evaluations becomes broader when societal products, societal use, and societal benefits of research are considered. This chapter presents an overview of the literature in the area of societal impact measurement of scientific papers. It describes major research projects on societal impact measurements. Problems of societal impact assessments are discussed as well as proposals to measure societal impact. The chapter discusses the role of alternative metrics in measuring societal impact. There is an ongoing debate in scientometrics as to whether altmetrics are able to measure this kind of impact.