Follow the electronic footprints: how to track impact without asking scientists to lift a pen

Citation counts and other traditional methods of reporting the results of research are proving inadequate, but now that almost all scientific and economic activity leaves electronic footprints, we have the tools to do better writes Julia Lane, Program Director of the Science of Science & Innovation Policy program at the National Science Foundation. A U.S. approach that links grants to the scientists that receive them, the students they train, the intellectual products they produce and the resulting social and economic outcomes of their research offers some ideas for U.K. practice.