A team of researchers at Sciencemetrix made use of Overton's data to run a large-scale study of the uptake of cross-disciplinary research in policy documents. Their analysis has been published in Quantitative Science Studies this month – you can read the paper here.
We are really pleased to see that the team saw Overton's data as a having the potential to enhance the understanding of real world policy impact compared with existing data sets and approaches:
"[Overton] appears as an important addition to the quantitative toolbox of altmetrics and other instruments for tracking such societal research outcomes. Indeed, at least one UPRL could be found for as many as 6% of publications from these EU-funded research projects using Overton, a much higher figure than reported in any of the previous studies using alternative data sources".
This research was funded through mandated work conducted for the European Commission Directorate General for Research and Innovation and the team consisted of Henrique Pinheiro, Etienne Vignola-Gagné and David Campbell from Sciencemetrix.
For more information about how Overton's database of policy documents and policy citations can be used in academic research, drop us a message.