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Research Impact Metrics – Quick Reference Guide: Home

This guide is designed to help researchers understand, track, and improve the impact of their work. Whether they are applying for funding, preparing for academic evaluations, or enhancing your visibility.

Understanding Research Impact Metrics

Research impact metrics quantify the influence, reach, and visibility of scholarly work. These metrics provide evidence of your contributions to the academic community and beyond.

Why Are These Metrics Important?

  • To demonstrate the value and impact of your research to funders, institutions, and collaborators.
  • To support grant applications, promotions, and tenure evaluations.
  • To assess how your research compares with peers in your field.

Best Practices for Enhancing Impact

  1. Choose the Right Publication Venues

    • Submit your work to reputable journals with strong metrics like high Impact Factors and SNIP scores.

  2. Embrace Open Access

    • Publishing in open-access journals or repositories improves discoverability and citations.

  3. Build Your Online Presence

    • Engage on platforms like ResearchGate, Mendeley, and Academia.edu to track and boost Scholarly Activity Online.
    • Share preprints, datasets, and conference presentations online to increase visibility.

  4. Leverage Social Media

    • Promote your work on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social platforms to encourage discussions and improve Social Media Mentions.

  5. Collaborate Strategically

    • Collaborate internationally to expand your research's audience and impact.

  6. Use Persistent Identifiers

    • Maintain an up-to-date ORCID iD and use it consistently to link all your work.

Core Types of Metrics

Citation-Based Metrics

  • h-index: Measures both productivity and citation impact; combines the number of publications and their citations.
  • i10-index: Counts the number of publications with at least 10 citations.
  • Total Citations: Indicates how often your work has been cited.

Journal Metrics

  • Impact Factor (IF): Average number of citations per article in a journal over two years.
  • CiteScore: A four-year average citation metric for journals.
  • SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): Considers the prestige of the journals that cite an article.

Researcher-Level Metrics

  • ORCID iD: A persistent identifier linking all your publications and outputs.
  • ResearchGate Score: Combines publication impact, citations, and interactions on the ResearchGate platform.

Alternative Metrics (Altmetrics)

  • Social Media Mentions: Tracks engagement on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
  • Downloads and Views: Tracks how many times your research has been accessed.
  • Media Coverage: Highlights your research’s impact outside academia, including news and blog mentions.

Advanced Metrics

  • Document Count: Total number of publications by a researcher.
  • Impact Per Publication (IPP): Average number of citations per publication.
  • Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI): Compares your work’s citation performance to others in the field.
  • Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): Adjusts citations based on field norms to make fairer comparisons.
  • Output in Top Percentiles: Percentage of your publications in the top 10% or 1% of highly cited works globally.
  • Percentile Benchmarking (Articles): Compares individual articles to similar works globally.
  • Scholarly Activity Online: Measures engagement on academic platforms like ResearchGate, Academia.edu, and Mendeley.
  • Scholarly Commentary Online: Tracks reviews, discussions, and commentary about your research on blogs and forums.

Tools for Measuring Impact

Citation Tracking Tools

  • Google Scholar: Tracks citations, calculates the h-index, and provides a broad overview of your impact.
  • Scopus: Provides detailed citation metrics, including SNIP and FWCI.
  • Web of Science: Offers in-depth citation reports and access to metrics like the h-index.

Journal Evaluation Tools

  • Journal Citation Reports (JCR): Provides Impact Factor and category rankings.
  • SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR): Offers rankings based on journal prestige.

Alternative Metrics Platforms

  • Altmetric.com: Tracks media mentions, social media shares, and other online activity.
  • Plum Analytics: Offers detailed metrics such as downloads, views, and shares.

Advanced Analytics Tools

  • SciVal (Elsevier): Tracks FWCI, percentile benchmarking, SNIP, and other advanced metrics.
  • InCites (Clarivate): Provides benchmarking and performance analysis of individual researchers and institutions.

Subject Guide

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Refilwe Phala
Contact:
Research Commons

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Additional Resources and Support

Key Platforms

Institutional Support

  • Check with your Personal Librarian for personalized advice on using these tools.