Voluntary and community organisations: tell us how you use research

Submitted by David Kane on Tue, 18/10/2011 - 17:58

David Kane

18th October 2011

This is a guest blog from Tim Vanson at the Office for Public Management (OPM). We're working with Tim and the team at OPM on a research project for JISC, looking at how organisations use research. We'd really like to here how you, as charities, use research in your work and how it helps you provide services and lobby for change.

Here at OPM we’re used to trekking down to the British Library or buying books, journals and papers to access research to inform our work. Whether we’re doing an evidence review for a client, keeping up to speed with the latest thinking on employee ownership or doing some background research for a new project, good quality research is vital.

At the moment, we’re working with the NCVO on a project that looks at research use by voluntary and community organisations (VCOs). Commissioned by JISC - the UK’s expert on information and digital technologies for education and research – the project focuses on the potential benefits to VCOs of open access to scholarly research. Open access means free of charge online access to research, often peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers. With open access:

'Researchers can reach a greater audience and find that their work is more widely read and cited, institutions gain an enhanced reputation as their research becomes more visible, funding agencies see a greater return on their investment, and publishers find that the impact of their journals increases. As a result, publicly-funded research has more impact and society as a whole benefits.' – JISC

As part of this project, we’re running a survey, so that we can build a picture of the types of research used by VCOs, what they use it for, what benefits research brings and what barriers they encounter. We'd like to ask for your help. We'd greatly appreciate it if you would complete our short survey about your organisation's use of research. Your input can ultimately help your organisation gain better access to research.

The survey includes questions about the types of research you use, its purpose and benefits, and the barriers your organisation faces. Please consider who would be best placed in your organisation to do the survey – typically the person responsible for information and research.

Complete the survey on the OPM site. If you need any help completing the survey, please contact Tim Vanson on tvanson@opm.co.uk, 020 7239 7806.