Compared to other types of impact, demonstrating societal impact of research is a lot more difficult and often takes years to become apparent. There is also much less agreement as to what "societal impact" means and how to measure it. In the Metric Tide, Wilsdon et. al (2015) defined research having societal impact "...when auditable or recorded influence is achieved upon non-academic organisation(s) or actor(s) in a sector outside the university sector itself – for instance, by being used by one or more business corporations, government bodies, civil society organisations, media or specialist/professional media organisations or in public debate" (p. 6).
Approaches to measure societal impact are varied, less direct, and often qualitative. Some possible approaches:
1. Citations of one's research outputs in public policy documents, clinical guidelines, standards, and patents might be argued to be societal impact since the work is contributing to a change in policy, practice, or the larger society. One might argue that being cited within the patent literature is more of a technological impact. Altmetric Explorer tracks citations in public policy documents, clinical guidelines, and patents.
2. Some demonstrate societal impact using a more narrative approach, essentially a case study supported by quantitative or qualitative data. Examples of this approach can be seen in the United Kingdom's 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). Here is a link to the REF 2021 Impact Case Studies. The database allows you to filter the search by impact type (e.g., societal, cultural, etc.).
3. Contributions to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) might be considered societal impact. The Dimensions Analytics database is assigning (tagging) publications in the database with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals algorithmically as they deem appropriate. The same data is also being added to your Scholars@TAMU profile.
4. Some may view research stimulating public discourse as a societal impact. Altmetric Explorer captures mentions in the media and social media that might demonstrate attention and engagement.
5. Consider other frameworks such as the CDC Science Impact Framework, SCOPE, and/or Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered (discovery, integration, application, and scholarship of teaching).
6. The contributions of research to education might also be considered a societal impact, so any evidence of your research being used in other educational settings or how it changed the teaching of a subject would help that narrative. Inclusions on reading lists or syllabi created by others may provide some evidence. One source is Open Syllabus Explorer, a searchable archive of syllabi.
Suggested Reading: Bornmann, L., & Haunschild, R. (2019). Societal impact measurement of research papers. In W. Glanzel, H. F. Moed, U. Schmoch, & M. Thelwall (Eds.), Springer handbook of Science and Technology Indicators (pp. 609-632). Springer. [Chapter 23]