Effects of research funding on the academic impact and societal visibility of scientific research

Abstract

Assessing the effectiveness of research funding is of significant value to policymakers. Previous studies have mainly concentrated on the academic impact of funded research, yet the exploration of how research funding affects the societal visibility of research has been significantly lacking. Thus, this study addresses this gap by examining papers published by Chinese scholars and compares the effects of funding on papers’ societal visibility (measured by Altmetric Attention Scores) with those for papers' academic impact (measured by citation counts). This study reveals several interesting findings: First, research supported by funding demonstrates a lower societal visibility, albeit a higher academic impact, compared to those without funding. Second, the societal visibility of research supported by small to moderate number of funding sources is still lower than those without research funding. In contrast, a paper's academic impact is higher if it has a higher number of research funding sources. Third, the effects of funding on papers’ academic impact and societal visibility differ by funding mechanisms—having industry funding significantly increases the societal visibility of research. These findings can aid research policymakers’ funding allocation decisions and inform better assessment of research outcomes.