International Forum on Expert Finder Systems
Charting the Informational Universe
September 16-18, 2025
Cleveland, OH

SPEAKERS

MacKinley Darlington

Interim Director, AU Press

Athabasca University Press

Description

MacKinley Darlington is an award-winning administrator with over 12 years of experience helping researchers and their partners navigate ever changing and increasing complex research and innovation ecosystems. As Athabasca University’s Knowledge Mobilization Specialist, MacKinley has helped researchers be deliberate and strategic when planning for and facilitating research impact. Although MacKinley is on secondment as interim Director, AU Press, she continues to support the exchange of knowledge through scholarly publishing activities.

MacKinley has been at AU, supporting our unique mission as Canada’s open university, since the Fall of 2021 and previously worked as the University of Calgary supporting those journeying along the knowledge to impact pipeline.

Sessions

Expertise in Impact: Enhancing Researcher Discoverability and Knowledge Mobilization through AI in a RIMS-Driven Environment
September 16, 2025
3:50 pm - 4:20 pm
PRESENTATION

Athabasca University is pioneering an innovative approach to address the growing demand for universities to demonstrate the societal impact of their research. As the need to showcase tangible outcomes becomes increasingly critical, measuring and articulating impact remains a complex challenge.

Our session will offer an exploration of our journey with Elsevier's Pure Impact AI tool. With the support of Elsevier's Pure Impact AI, Athabasca is leading the way in developing a holistic, nuanced, and multifaceted solution to capture both qualitative and quantitative metrics of research impact. Attendees will learn how this advanced AI tool enables academic leaders and research administrators to efficiently find, measure, and communicate the societal impact of their research. We will share insights from our pilot testing phase. Through this partnership, Athabasca is setting a new standard for research impact communication, with Elsevier's technology playing a vital supporting role.

Athabasca University is Canada's open university, renowned for its commitment to digital innovation. Our research enterprise is both community-focused and impact-driven, challenging conventional methods by breaking down barriers to knowledge creation and dissemination. Pure, a robust research information management system that centralizes a diverse range of research data types, is focal to our efforts and is being used to enhance transparency and foster collaborative innovation across disciplines. And the Pure Impact AI tools discussed in this presentation features in this work.

Speaker
MacKinley Darlington
Interim Director, AU Press
Athabasca University Press
Co-speaker
Sean Newell
Senior Director
Elsevier
Moderator
Tina Moir
Senior Director
Elsevier

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