How much are you worth? A short guide to measuring your research efforts

The list of ways to measure the impact a researcher’s work is long, but no single system is comprehensive. Using a single metric may give a distorted perspective. Below are some simple tips you can use to get a balanced view of their work.

The number of citations an author has is a traditional measure of impact. While is easier than ever to get a citation count with the help of Google Scholar, this method may provide a skewed view of an author’s work when used alone.

No single tool will show every citation but Google Scholar comes closest. This is the largest index available according to some estimates, with information on over 389 million articles (and growing). It is easy to find the number of times and article has been cited by other articles in Google Scholar. Look for the “Cited By” link below the bibliographic data for each search result. Clicking on the “Cited by” link will show you the results for all the articles indexed in Google Scholar that have cited the source article.

The Science Direct database is another good place to find a citation count. This is one of the largest full text databases in the D’Youville library collection, but does not contain as much information as Google Scholar. The percentage of quality academic journals in Science Direct is much higher, increasing the chances that the citing articles are academically sound.

Clicking the article title will open to the full text. The “Citing Articles” menu is in the right hand column and is complete with links to these articles.

Proquest is another library database that will give you a count of the number of citing articles. The percentage of academic content in this database is lower than the resources mentioned above, so the citation counts are smaller. It is simple enough to use that it might be worth a quick look though. Enter your search terms and look for the “Cited By” link under each article listed in the search results. This link generates list of full text articles citing the source material.

Don’t Stop with Citation Counts!

Citation counts don’t weigh each publication or give an accurate reflection of the whole catalog of work. A small number of highly cited works may give a false impression of overall effectiveness. Similar research published in several different publications of varying reputation may help inflate publication and citation counts.

Get a balanced impression of research output using some combination of the advanced metrics currently available. Using a combination of tools available from the Internet and the library at D’Youville will make it easier to assess the researcher and their research.

Three popular bibliometric methods that help in evaluating work are journal impact factors, h-index and altmetrics.

Journal Impact Factors

Journal Impact Factors help determine how important a journal is rather than the influence of any individual article. Compare journals within a discipline using a value derived from the frequency its articles are cited.

Journals with high impact factors indicate quality and relevance for a publication. Publishing in these journals can help improve the influence of the researcher by inclusion in the publication.

To calculate impact factors, divide the number of times articles were cited by the number of cite-able articles within a select time-period (at least 3 years). A three year impact factor for 2018 would be derived by taking the number of citations found for items published in the journal during the years 2016 and 2017 and dividing sum by the number of cite-able articles published for 2016 and 2017.

Be aware of the recent criticism in academics over using the Journal Impact Factor to measure a researcher’s work however. This metric was designed to measure journals, not individuals or their work. It might be helpful when used with a mix of other metrics however.

H-Index

An H-index can be assigned to either a journal or an author. It measures the number of published research papers(h) that have received (h) or more citations. A researcher with a score of 5 on the h-index has 5 papers cited at least 5 times. Google Scholar uses the H-index to rank journals.

Altmetrics

Altmetrics are a non-traditional measure of research that measures exposure, attention and influence for an author and their works. It compiles data from web pages and social media. Altmetrics can include such diverse indicators such as mentions in blogs and news sites, shares on Twitter and Facebook, and downloads or views from databases. Plum Analytics collects almetrics which are found in some of the D’Youville Library databases.

Resources for Research Metrics

Cabell’s

The Cabell’s directory covers over 11,000 academic journals. Reseachers use this resource to find a place to publish their work, but it can be helpful for evaluating impact. Useful metrics include journal impact factors, altmetrics for journal titles and a Difficulty of Acceptance ranking for journals.

Journal Metrics in Cabell's

Google Scholar

Google Scholar allows you to see how many times an article has been cited. You can view the h-index of publications to see how they rank against each other. They have a list of the top 100 journals from their h-index as well as comparisons of journals within disciplines. Click the menu button entitled “Categories” above the listing for the top 100 journals to select a specific field of study.

You can create a profile to track your own articles and calculate an h-index score. Display your score publicly within Google (or create a link for web pages) or keep it private. Select the “My Profile” icon at the top of the Google Scholar screen and follow the prompts to sign up for this service.

Altmetrics

Altmetrics are in several of the library databases. The Ebsco databases include a Plum X metrics icon below the search results for those items that have been measured. These databases include Spartan Search, Medline and CINAHL. Hovering above the icon will reveal the altmetrics for that item.

Hover menu for PlumX altmetrics

The Science Direct database includes a link entitled “Article Metrics”in the right hand column when viewing the full text of an article.

Clicking on either the icon or side bar menu will open a window with detailed information about downloads and mentions for the article.

Conclusion

Whether you are up for evaluation or evaluating someone’s research, looking at these metrics will help give a clearer picture their impact. This information will make it easier to find some key measurements. Don’t forget to use multiple metrics to give a multifaceted view of a researcher’s output.

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