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Although supporting and assessing the non-academic “impact” of research are not entirely new developments in higher education, academics and research institutions are under increasing pressure to produce work that has a measurable influence outside the academy. With a view to supporting the solution of complex societal issues with evidence and expertise, and against the background of increased emphasis on impact in the United Kingdom's 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) and a proliferation of impact guides and tools, this article offers a simple, easy to remember framework for designing impactful research. We call this framework “The 7Cs of Impact” – Context, Communities, Constituencies, Challenge, Channels, Communication and Capture.

Drawing on core elements of the Policy Institute at King's College London's Impact by Design training course and the authors' practical experience in supporting and delivering impact, this paper outlines how this framework can help address key aspects across the lifecycle of a research project and plan, from identifying the intended impact of research and writing it into grants and proposals, to engaging project stakeholders and assessing whether the project has had the desired impact.

While preparations for current and future REF submissions may benefit from using this framework, this paper sets out the “7Cs” with a more holistic view of impact in mind, seeking to aid researchers in identifying, capturing, and communicating how research projects can and do contribute to the improvement in society.

Purpose: This report analyzes relationships between chronic inflammation and quality of life (QoL). It assesses the potential role of intimate relationships in associations between inflammation, medical sequelae such as pain and disability, and QoL.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Limited longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) were analyzed. Inflammation was assessed via the biomarker C-reactive protein (CRP). The authors examined pathwise associations between CRP levels and general happiness. The authors used ordinal logistic regression with companion OLS models, and conducted a variety of sensitivity analyses.

Findings: Intimate partnerships – especially marriage – appear to impact associations between inflammation and QoL. When QoL is measured using general happiness, intimate relationships appear to shape directional associations between inflammation and QoL along with medical consequences of inflammation.

Research Limitations/Implications: Inflammation and its clinical consequences may substantially alter intimate relationship involvement and quality that in turn impact QoL. These relationships should not be viewed as unilateral explanations of the tremendous variability observed in QoL among people with inflammatory conditions, but rather as possible elements of complex causal frameworks. Further investigation using advanced methods for longitudinal modeling from limited waves of data can help to shed additional light on the nuances of happiness and QoL among people living with chronic inflammation.

Originality/Value: This chapter provides an overview of possible causal relationships between chronic inflammation, associated clinical and social experiences, and QoL. Researchers interested in advanced causal modeling of relationships between chronic inflammation and QoL can build on this work using novel methods and data sources.

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the procurement process of consulting services within the public sector and to benchmark the obtained results with practices in the private sector.

A two‐stage research design has been used. First, in‐depth personal interviews were conducted with six users of consulting services. The second stage involved a cross‐sectional survey of purchasers of a broad range of business advisory services. This included private as well as public purchasers.

It was found that the procurement process of consulting services in the public sector differs significantly from that of private companies. Further analyses indicate that purchasers from public and private organizations are equally satisfied with the results of consulting services.

The results of the study indicate that public sector organizations may need to develop new buying skills in market management, specification, competitive process, negotiation regulation and monitoring.

The paper suggests that a more high‐level management involvement is needed, recognizing the importance of the procurement function within the public sector and supporting highly trained staff in implementing strategic procurement initiatives.

The study provides unique insights on how consulting services are purchased in the public sector as well as in the private sector. Furthermore, the paper illustrates which purchase practices explain the satisfaction level of purchasers of consulting services.

The study compares how distinct mechanisms that connect pre-established policy objectives to professionals' practices, and the health policy implementation context influenced different approaches to frontline staff participation. The authors analysed 26 teams in six cities from two Brazilian states, during the last cycle of the National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ).

About 172 in-depth interviews were conducted with frontliners – community health workers (78), nurses (37), doctors (30) – and managers (27). Interview guides were based on key issues identified in the implementation and pay-for-performance (P4P) literature. Drawing on thematic analysis and synthesis of the literature, three types of participation mechanisms were identified: relational, motivational and incremental learning. They were analysed considering distinct contexts at the local level to understand how they influenced different forms of participation: mere adherence, result-oriented and transformative.

Administrations with stronger institutional organizational structures were able to control work processes and reduce professional discretion. However, sustained participation was more likely where there was greater integration between management and frontline health care teams. Motivation based only on financial incentives could not bring about transformative participation. This depended on the degree of professional's ideational motivation towards primary care. Finally, contexts with unfavourable working conditions tend to demotivate professionals, but incremental learning helps teams cope with these obstacles.

The study overcomes gaps in the literature in relation to PMAQ's implementation process. Overall, the study delves into which/how mechanisms alter frontliners participation in performance-oriented health programs.

In this paper we propose a new method for the creation of subject bibliographies. Our method consists of two phases: first, the raw bibliographical material is downloaded from an online bibliographical database (e.g. DIALOG), and then this material is processed using knowledge‐based means. We apply a meta‐programming approach in which the raw bibliographic material is viewed as a logic program upon which we develop a second‐order logic program. The second‐order program creates the subject bibliography by operating a rule base and the first‐order logic program. The entire system, named REX, was written in PROLOG and used to create automatically a subject bibliography on Applications of Logic Programming in Decision and Control.

[In view of the approaching Conference of the Library Association at Perth, the following note on the Leighton Library may not be inopportune. Dunblane is within an hour's railway journey from Perth and has a magnificent cathedral, founded in the twelfth century, which is well worthy of a visit.]

This study aims to analyze how organization development (OD) practitioners develop corporate citizenship for the purpose of increasing their organization’s capacity to practice corporate citizenship. Research shows that very few corporations have the organizational capacity to practice corporate citizenship. Evidence exists that ever more corporations adopt programs of corporate citizenship development to increase this capacity. However, there still is a general lack of a strategic understanding of how corporate citizenship development occurs. The potential of OD frameworks and tools for developing corporate citizenship have been highlighted. Nevertheless, how OD practitioners develop corporate citizenship has not been studied empirically so far.

A sociomaterial case study design was used. The work of six OD practitioners when developing corporate citizenship in one of the largest pharmaceutical corporations was studied over several months, based on interviews, observations and document analyses.

The findings presented offer model practices of corporate citizenship development, in the form of five core strategies and five core behaviors that increase an organization’s capacity to practice corporate citizenship.

With this study, the notion of corporate citizenship development has become established as a distinct research area. The study might encourage further research in this important niche area.

The findings have direct practical implications for at least seven different stakeholder groups.

The findings shed new light on both the epistemological and practical foundations of the concept of corporate citizenship, and hint to a new role of the fields of OD and human resource development in the twenty-first century.

This paper aims to highlight the emphasis placed on training at UK not‐for‐profit health‐insurance company BHSF.

This paper presents the views of the firm's HR and quality‐management director.

This paper advances the view that upgrading transferable skills and gaining nationally recognized qualifications makes more sense than ever because, when businesses start to come out of the economic downturn, they will need to have retained and improved their skills base.

The paper argues that National Vocational Qualifications, apprenticeships, partnerships with schools, colleges and universities and graduate recruitment are key to improving productivity and competitiveness for all sizes of business.

The paper suggests that employees who take advantage of training opportunities are likely to be more motivated, committed to their employer, and capable of making a greater contribution to the business.

ARTICLES have been written from time to time in our professional journals dealing with the question of local collections. These articles have, however, dealt with the formation of such collections, the principles of collecting, methods of storage, and the best means of classifying and cataloguing the same. But I do not remember any of the writers advocating the establishment of what may be termed county libraries, i.e., special libraries in each county for the accumulation of everything relating to the county. All works that do not deal in some way or another with the locality would be outside the scope of such libraries.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.