Research Metrics

Research Metrics measure the impact of journals, articles, and authors.

• To calculate your impact as a researcher for applications for promotion, tenure, or a new job
• When applying for research grants
• When identifying a journal to submit a publication to

• Don’t use just one metric, you need several to properly tell your story
• Choose the metrics that best showcase your research expertise and career
• Combine metrics with qualitative methods, such as reviews of your books, discussions, etc.

• Discipline and sub-discipline
  • There is a significant amount of variation between disciplines in the types of materials published, the number of publications, citation practices, collaboration practices
• Researcher’s length of career
  • Researchers who are well-established tend to be more highly cited than early-career researchers, regardless of the quality of the publication
• Reason for citation
  • Articles may be cited for a variety of reasons, including: review of interest in a research topic, to support an argument, or to remark on the poor quality of methods or analysis
• Time
  • The amount of time between publication and citation differs between disciplines 
• The citation tracking database being used
  • The number of citations may appear to change, but it’s because the database’s scope of indexed materials has changed

The Article Metrics guide provides more information on which databases provide citation tracking features

Examine the impact level or performance of a journal by using citation analysis

Measure the impact of an individual article

Determine the impact of a researcher

Take into consideration measures of impact other than citations in scholarly journals, such as social media, blogs, news, bookmarks and downloads on citation managers.