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Increase Your Scholarly Impact

A self-service guide to help you increase your scholarly impact, provided by the Libraries' Scholarly Impact Service (SIS).

Visual Work Metrics Defined

Faculty who create visual works are often asked to prepare information regarding  the impact and recognition of their scholarly and creative activities as it relates to their professional reputation.  Peer review, an important indicator of quality for academic faculty, can be demonstrated by noting works entered into juried, judged, or invited exhibitions. Evidence through slides, photographs, or digital images can demonstrate the nature and efforts necessary for the work.  Evidence of in-progress work can also be useful for demonstrating the level of a faculty member's efforts before the work is complete.

While impact can be communicated in specific quantitative measures such as citations or views of an exhibition catalog, exhibition attendees, and funding received either for the production of or later sales of a work, the primary indicators of a faculty member's scholarly impact are communicated through descriptive pieces.

When describing the impact of your work, consider including information that answers the questions below.

When working with, or having work displayed by a museum, gallery, private collection, public art venue, art institution, or arts organization:

  • Would you describe the scope of its contents as local, regional, national, or international?
  • Is it particularly known for a specialization? How is it often recognized?
  • Was this work underwritten by the organization or otherwise funded by a related entity?

When discussing the visibility of your work, consider adding information regarding:

  • Critical reviews or other recognition of your work in publications
  • Photographs of work in publications with regional, local, national, or international exposure
  • The scope of publications recognizing your work, whether local, regional, national, or international
  • Particularly for trade publications, how widely is the publication circulated? As in, how many potential readers have seen your work?

When engaging in consultant or design work for clients:

  • Are these clients a regional, national, or international entity?
  • Are they notable or have gained recognition in a specific area?
  • Was this an independent or team-based initiative?

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