The subjects of interest amongst academicians using Impactio laboratory highlights the degrees of similarity and differences in research opportunity. For example, a quick Keyword search of the word “Business” on the laboratory page brings up 45 search results of academicians all who have some relationship with business in their profile, and in their careers. Of the 45 in that search, Queue are 10 individuals who have been to some higher education institution that is a School of Business, while the rest are affiliated with the keyword in some other manner.

Of those who have been to a School of Business, there are only a few individuals that are specifically focused on Computer Science, while others range in their specializations of Business Management, Supply Chain Management, Financing of Higher Education, and Economics.

It is interesting to see the way that grouping works on the Impactio laboratory, and how, depending on the Keyword that is searched for, no matter how straightforward it might seem, academicians from all walks of life populate.

Specialized Fields

Specializations exist within the Laboratory via totally different sectors. While searching for the Keyword “Business” and taking a closer look, there are academics who have been involved in the business of entrepreneurship, and helping individuals in developing countries and SMEs (small-medium sized enterprises). This type of business represents a specialization that is very different from the financial business or business administration of a large company in the U.S.

This differentiation really shows how the Impactio laboratory serves to bring career academics who are passionate about solving poverty, advocating for justice, or doing some type of work that revolves around the concept of equity— the equality of outcome. Meanwhile, other academics that still fall under the umbrella of the Keyword “Business” have many different interests and have made a career out of understanding finance and the economics of the business in the corporate sector. In the latter sense, the profiles of those who have stricter, and more traditional careers in business management seem to have less information in their profiles, and also seem to use the Laboratory service for the purpose of showing their Citations.

When entering the Keyword “Science”, something similar happens. The initial search results populate a much larger list of academicians, this time 145 individuals, who span from hard sciences such as Soil Science, Earth Science, and Fisheries Biology, to more abstract sciences such as AI (artificial intelligence) and Machine Learning.

Within this search, there is also a major differentiation between how human-centered research projects populate with those who are in the fields of environmental and geological sciences, while those who are in the fields of AI, computer science, and statistical analysis are looking at metadata, and concerned with mathematics as a “Science” versus the science of what is happening to different Earth-related systems in different regions of the planet.

Thus the Keyword search can act as an “Umbrella” search or all-encompassing search as it does not filter out the type of people vs. process-oriented sciences, and instead lumps them together to populate large lists of individuals.

Searching by Institution

There is also a simpler way for young professionals and those who have a very specific higher education institution in mind. Simply hitting the “Enter” key before typing anything, for example under the Institution search bar, will populate a list of every Institution currently advertised on the laboratory. Searching by Institution is a good way for individuals who are looking for specific regions of the world with specific sectoral problems.

For example, while it is a relatively short list of populated individuals, young researchers and those curious can type in “India” under the Institution search bar to see how many universities and academicians are doing research at Indian universities, and what, if any are the commonalities of researchers in this part of the world. This can be a useful tactic especially for those trying to understand the political economy and how different sectoral challenges affect different parts of the world. In this way, Impactio lab can provide lots of exposure to not just the type of research being done, but the significance of where it is being done.