The introduction of ‘impact’ as an element of assessment constitutes a major change in the construction of research evaluation systems. While various protocols of impact evaluation exist, the most articulated one was implemented as part of the British Research Excellence Framework (REF). This paper investigates the nature and consequences of the rise of ‘research impact’ as an element of academic evaluation from the perspective of discourse. Drawing from linguistic pragmatics and Foucauldian discourse analysis, the study discusses shifts related to the so-called Impact Agenda on four stages, in chronological order: (1) the ‘problematization’ of the notion of ‘impact’, (2) the establishment of an ‘impact infrastructure’, (3) the consolidation of a new genre of writing–impact case study, and (4) academics’ positioning practices towards the notion of ‘impact’, theorized here as the triggering of new practices of ‘subjectivation’ of the academic self. The description of the basic functioning of the ‘discourse of impact’ is based on the analysis of two corpora: case studies submitted by a selected group of academics (linguists) to REF2014 (no = 78) and interviews (n = 25) with their authors. Linguistic pragmatics is particularly useful in analyzing linguistic aspects of the data, while Foucault’s theory helps draw together findings from two datasets in a broader analysis based on a governmentality framework. This approach allows for more general conclusions on the practices of governing (academic) subjects within evaluation contexts.

引入“影响”作为评估的要素，构成了研究评估体系建设的重大变化。尽管存在各种影响评估的协议，但最明确的协议是作为英国卓越研究框架（REF）的一部分实施的。本文从话语的角度研究了“研究影响力”作为学术评价要素的兴起的性质和后果。这项研究从语言语用学和福柯式的话语分析中汲取了灵感，按时间顺序从四个阶段讨论了与所谓的影响议程有关的转变：（1）“影响”概念的“问题化”，（2）建立“影响”概念“影响基础设施”；（3）整合了新的写作风格-影响案例研究；（4）学者对“影响”概念的定位实践，在这里被理论认为是对学术自我“主体化”的新实践的触发。“影响话语”的基本功能的描述基于对两个语料库的分析：一组选定的学者（语言学家）提交给REF2014的案例研究（编号= 78）和访谈（n  = 25）和他们的作者。语言语用学在分析数据的语言方面特别有用，而福柯的理论则有助于在基于政府框架的更广泛分析中将两个数据集的发现汇总在一起。这种方法可以得出关于在评估环境中管理（学术）科目的实践的更笼统的结论。