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6 Metrics for Achieving Goals and Demonstrating Impact
Pages 63-70

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From page 63...
... -- William Bruce Cameron, 1958 The value of field stations is widely documented in success stories by leading scientists, anecdotal evidence, and qualitative and semi-quantitative data. But it is difficult to analyze quantitatively the collective contribution of field stations to research, education, and outreach, because of the lack of aggregated empirical evidence.
From page 64...
... Many field stations document at least one metric well, such as the number of research grants or number of publications, but fail to thoroughly document outputs and outcomes of other important activities, such as training, outreach, and achieving budgetary goals. Although it is essential to have metrics of standard performance, such as publications and grants, field stations also need to develop metrics to assess leadership success.
From page 65...
...  Number of user days and contact hours  Peak season of use and capacity for facility Assessing financial stability  Number and size of grants enabled by field stations  Amount of recovered overhead  Revenue income from endowments, gifts, sponsored activities, and user charges  Operating and maintenance expenses a more compelling case of their value to science and society. To make the case for their collective importance as a national and even international resource, field stations would benefit greatly from working together to develop a common set of metrics of performance to document their outputs and outcomes and to allow comparisons among stations.
From page 66...
... That would require an investment, but it would provide major benefits in documenting the contributions of individual field stations and the community of field stations, and in evaluating the relative contributions of different field stations, and identifying potential networking opportunities among facilities. Measuring Progress and Impact In general, measuring the impact of research at field stations on the scientific enterprise poses a challenge because benefits to society usually are not observed until years after research is completed.
From page 67...
... A variety of field stations have programs that can serve as models because they provide data repositories, libraries, lists of publications, information about the local climate, species found in the area, and scientists and staff members who work there. For example, the website of Archbold Biological Station includes annual reports, data and metadata, and even a fact sheet describing the location, habitats, climate, and species.
From page 68...
... It may be pertinent to point out that private field stations often have a stronger Web presence than many public field stations. One reason for that may be that private stations need to fund their continued operations through private contributions and user fees and have found that a strong Web presence leads to more financial support.
From page 69...
... However, gathering data on the 39 field stations within UC NRS across a wide variety of uses for research, education, and public engagement is complex. The UC NRS stations are visited by many different people, and provide infrastructure for multiple research projects that can span different time periods and include more than one reserve.
From page 70...
... The metrics should be designed so that they can be aggregated for regions and the entire nation. Universities and other host institutions and funding organizations should support the gathering and transparent reporting of field station performance metrics because such information will enhance the stations' ability to document the contributions of field stations to the nation's research and education enterprise.


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