Measuring the Impact of a Research Impact Challenge

Context: This presentation occurred at the Medical Library Association, Special Library Association joint conference in Detroit, Michigan May 18, 2023.
Background: In September 2022, the Lane Medical Library hosted its 4th annual Research Impact Challenge (RIC). The 2022 RIC was designed to accomplish the following goals: 1) Align with the institution’s Open Access Policy, 2) Increase the adoption and integration of ORCID identifiers on the medical campus, 3) Connect patrons with bibliometric-related tools that the library subscribes to in order to help patrons gain a better understanding of their personal research metrics, 4) Establish the medical library as the primary point of contact for research impact-related questions on campus, and lastly, 5) Increase the visibility of the medical library as a resource for medical campus community members.

Description: As research impact and bibliometric services gain popularity within medical libraries, RIC events are becoming more common. There is limited information published about the impact that these events have on medical library patrons. For this reason, the Marketing and Communications Team (MCT) and the Research Communications Librarian, developed several methods to better assess the participation and engagement of RIC registrants, and the impact the RIC has on the Stanford medical campus with the hope of sharing their findings with the medical librarian community. The MCT is composed of three librarians across three different departments. MCT promoted the challenge via targeted emails to past challenge participants, newsletter subscribers and liaison contacts. We shared the challenge announcement on our library blog and social media. In 2022, the RIC consisted of five daily emails with suggested challenges scaffolded at three different experience levels for participants to complete independently. A raffle prize element was added for the first time to the RIC, which was used as a marketing strategy to advertise the event. Data sources covered in this presentation include: Mailchimp activity, prize raffle survey data, institutional ORCID integration statistics, Libguide statistics, qualitative feedback from RIC raffle winners, and post event evaluation survey responses.

Conclusion: We expect to report on the impact the RIC had on the Stanford Medicine community based on the data sources mentioned above. Historical data available from previous iterations of the event will be used as a benchmark to monitor progress. Interest and engagement with the event disaggregated by departmental groups and patron type will be shared. The five RIC goals used to help focus the event will be reflected upon. The presenters will share whether the added element of a raffle prize was a successful incentive to the Stanford Medicine community and will share marketing and event evaluation tips with attendees who wish to plan a similar event.