Research and practice impact in humanitarian operations: a critical review, challenges, and opportunities

Since the first publications on humanitarian operations, researchers have been concerned about the impact of our research. In this paper, we examine the impact of our field on academic research and on real-world practice, with an eye toward increasing impact. To that end, we review the literature on measuring impact on research and practice and draw out guidance to shape a series of analyses, including a review of papers in humanitarian operations and of topics in practitioner conferences and webinars, and a survey of the author community that identifies papers with impact on practice and research. We identify and compare the characteristics of papers that impact practice and those that impact research, and analyse the "recipes" for papers that impact both. We find limited but important examples of practice impact and identify two key barriers preventing broader impact: limited connections between research and practice and the apparent difficulty of achieving both research and practice impact in one paper. Finally, we suggest ways to reach greater practice and academic impact.

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