• Citations are not impact.

• At one point, scientific success was based on citations and publications, publications in 'high impact' journals and perhaps some media exposure. However, the term 'impact' is now being redefined to incorporate a much wider definition of what it means for research to be impactful. "We define the term comprehensive impact as the broad impact of scientific research upon human society (including cultural and economic impact) and the natural environment." (Ravenscroft, Liakata, Clare & Duma, 2017) - referring to impact as something that goes beyond the traditional academic indices of success. This is similar to the Research Excellence Framework's (REF) definition of impact as the "effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.” (REF 2014 Key Facts, 2014;). REF claims to assess "the broader impact of universities’ research beyond academia: on the economy, society, culture, public policy and services, health, the environment and quality of life – within the UK and internationally."Taking Part in REF 2021, 2017). These definitions infer the idea of impact beyond the academic sphere, this is particularly important to bear in mind since it is a key component of REF 2021 criteria: "For each submission, three distinct elements are assessed: the quality of outputs (e.g. publications, performances, and exhibitions), their impact beyond academia, and the environment that supports research." (What is the REF, 2017). Therefore sharing knowledge and information is not enough. Simply publishing papers (that rarely get utilised outside of academia or industry) is not enough. Sharing findings and conclusions, and having these shared on social media is not enough, as this is a passive dissemination of knowledge. Impact, in this case, goes beyond dispersing information from a university setting to the wider public. 

• Dissemination is not necessarily impact either

• Often social media posts, news articles, blog posts etc. are thought of as impact; 'All I need to do is carry out some great research then share what I have found'. That's great, but it isn't necessarily 'impact' as it mostly based on the unidirectional dissemination of findings. All of those things above can be part of impactful research though with a small tweak (see next point). This is why public engagement - engagement as going beyond disseminating knowledge - is more beneficial than simply tweeting, or writing about research findings. A PhD Life article here, gives some useful examples of impact activities, which do involve some dissemination but the difference is the two-way communication and interaction, which goes beyond the passing on of knowledge as a meaningful indicator of impact. 

• Two-way process 

• In this workshop we learnt about impact as bidirectional exchange and mobilisation of knowledge. Knowledge is not only shared by researchers, but incorporates the knowledge of those that the research will potentially affect and all of the groups of people in will potentially affect. Going back to point 2 and the importance of public engagement in research. For example in eating disorder research a variety of people should be involved in knowledge exchange from the start - clinicians, patients in treatment, those who have been through treatment but are no longer being treated, carers etc. It should be emphasised that impact should be considered from the start of a research project, as it is often neglected until the end of the process in terms of sharing findings. Not only does considering this from the start give more opportunity to involve the public, patients, businesses, charities etc., it allows researchers to have impact throughout the project which is far more beneficial for society and the REF case studies. 

• Impact literacy is vital

• Your research could have good impact, but if that is not emphasised in the right way, it could get lost. Impact by REF 2021 standards will be examined via case studies, so it is important that these are well articulated and communicated effectively. It could be that the work is impactful but it is not explained effectively, so that gets missed in the assessment process. Impact must be evidenced, which is why it is important to think about this early on in the research project. Examples of evidence are anything that proves there is some change or effect of the work, this may include testimonials, policy or practice change, awards, or survey data. So we are going above and beyond just having  impactful research, in the sense that this must be evidenced too.

Way back in July 2016 - like, wow, that's WAAAY back - I wrote about why I fell out of love with fitness. I meant every single word of that post and still do, one and a half years later. It's hard to imagine a life where I don't work out. Don't get me wrong. That post was not about me saying working out is evil and you shouldn't do it. There are so many benefits to exercise which I don't even need to discuss here. Exercise is good for you, we get it. But, I don't think the 'dark side' of fitness is spoken about enough. There is a lot of talk about the dark side of dieting and clean eating though alongside the 'dieting revolution' and escaping 'the life thief' (aka diet culture) see Christy Harrison. But what happens to when a fun gym class turns to 6 times a week, turns to every day, turns to obsessing about how many calories you've burnt and how much more cardio you should have to do to earn that extra biscuit.

I am fully with those revolutions. I wholeheartedly agree that what you eat should not define you and should not be the be all and end all of life (like it can be for us a lot of us that get sucked up in the world of 'dieting culture'). Working out is such an important part of my life to this day now; it's my therapy, my sanity hour, my time to switch off and think. I work out now for functionality; to be strong (like really damn strong, 'don't mess with me' kinda strong). To clear my head and get those endorphins. Seeing my weights or form improve is much more satisfactory to me than seeing my (scale) weight decrease or my (non-existent) thigh gap increase. But as you will all know from my last post, that hasn't always been the case and seeing my weight decrease, or shall I say see my body change, was much more important than my bodies safety, my mental health or my social life.

I wrote some tips on my last post of things I personally believe can help you get rid of this obsession, because it is an obsession, with working and out and trying to alter your body shape (because a big part of weight-lifting in the gym is not just weight loss, it's fat loss and changing the shape of your body - hence the term 'body building').

• Travelling - I mean who can workout 5 times a week and eat moderately when in Asia... not me! 3 months and 14lbs later, Nadia's a very happy bunny. 
• Finding other passions - it's not a crime to love something and prioritise than non-fitnessy activity (even if it is Netflix - oops). 
• Working hard - I know there are many quotes out there about how there is alwaysssss enough time in the day and how you just have to be efficient. Well, that's a load of crap, I'm sorry. There might be but it can also make you pretty damn miserable, burn out your hormones, disrupt your sleep (which is so much more important by the way), ruin your social life and basically just turn you into a hot mess. And although 'hot mess' is often used in a fun, 'oh this is soo cool' kinda way, it's not. It's not cool to be a walking zombie all in the name of meal prep and getting in a workout you can't miss.