This page lists relevant metrics that assess the research impact of the individual researcher. This is not a comprehensive list; new metrics are becoming available all the time. If you have any queries about research impact measurement tools, please contact us.
The following metrics apply:
The above metrics are all available from Scopus and Web of Science.
Citation databases tell us how often a published work has been cited within that database's journals.
You can check (and compare) the impact of your publications in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Mendeley, Microsoft Academic Search, PLOS and Plum Analytics.
Citation alerts: Receive alerts when authors or documents of interest receive new citations. Set up a personal profile in your favourite database and explore the options for citation alerting.
Author metrics: Open Google Scholar and search your name or that of a colleague. If a (public) Google Citations profile exists, it will show up at the top of the results list. Click on the profile to see various metrics like citations, h-index and i10-index (the number of publications with at least 10 citations).
Tip: More information on creating a Google (Scholar) author profile and activating Google Scholar Citations is available in the guide here.
Article metrics: Open Google Scholar and search an article or subject. In the results list, the number of citations the article has received is visible underneath each article ('Cited by'). Click on this number to see a list of all citations.
The National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 stipulates that the review mechanisms of higher education institutions should account for performance metrics. Traditional citation counts and altmetrics represent individual researcher performance metrics that matter within the institutional review context.
Caveats: Quantitative metrics cannot and should not replace peer review within research assessment. The 10 principles of the Leiden Manifesto propose a sensible approach to research evaluation. Be aware of the following concerns!
Bilder, G., n.d. The Citation Fetish [WWW Document]. YouTube. URL www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAEB8MbxICU (accessed 7.6.16).
LSE Public Policy Group, 2010. Maximising the Impacts of Your Research: A Handbook for Social Scientists. Impact of Social Sciences.
Moed, H.F., Halevi, G., 2015. Multidimensional assessment of scholarly research impact. J Assn Inf Sci Tec 66, 1988–2002. doi:10.1002/asi.23314
Waltman, L., Costas, R., van Eck, N.J., 2012. Some Limitations of the “H” Index: A Commentary on Ruscio and Colleagues’ Analysis of Bibliometric Indices. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives 10, 172–175.