Supporting Research Impact Metrics in Academic Libraries: A Case Study

Measuring research impact has become a nearly ubiquitous facet of scholarly communication. At the University of Minnesota Medical School, new administrative directives have directly tied impact metrics to faculty assessment, promotion, and tenure. In this paper, I describe a platform for the analysis and visualization of research impact that was developed in the University of Minnesota Libraries specifically to support these directives. The implementation of that platform, named Manifold, has required not only major technological resources but also new investments in user education. The libraries’ experience with Manifold offers a case study of the changing roles academic librarians increasingly face in managing expectations around research impact metrics.