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Research Metrics Toolkit

"I'm applying for a promotion, and need to demonstrate the engagement and outstanding impact of my work within my discipline and the wider community. How do I find and identify the best research metrics to include in my application?"

Metrics for STEM Researchers

For STEM researchers, many research metrics are available quickly and easily through your author profiles in 3 key places:

Scopus and Web of Science each index a list of specific journals. STEM topics are well covered in both databases, so you will likely find most of your journal article publications included in your profile. There is more limited coverage of books, book chapters, and conference papers - but you may find that some of these publications are included too. Google Scholar can be a helpful extra tool as its search engine usually finds more publications and citations from across the web.


Caution: Author profiles

To work with most of the metrics described in this guide, you will need to update and maintain your author profiles regularly. Author profiles are the foundation for bibliometric analysis.

 
You must maintain and update your author profiles (even those created for you) to:
  • Be able to quickly gather accurate research metrics
  • Ensure publications are correctly attributed to you
  • Ensure publications are correctly attributed to Deakin
  • Ensure your work is seen in its best light by reviewers who may use these database products as part of their assessment.

Find out more about Author Profiles.


How to: What metrics do I need? How do I find them?

Here are some examples of metrics you could include in your application, and where to find them.


Journal articles

Article level metrics are usually available from the article's record page in different databases. However, to get some information such as journal metrics you may be required to go to other resources (e.g. SCImago). Similar to author metrics, the numbers might be different in different databases due to their coverage.

Metrics Source Where to find the information
Citation count Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar Article record in the relevant database
FWCI (article level) Scopus Article record in Scopus
Article ranking (citation percentile) Scopus, WoS Article record in Scopus, WoS, Essential Science indicators, SciVal, InCites
Highly cited papers WoS Article record in WoS Core Collection
Altmetrics (e.g. social media and news mentions) Altmetric, PlumX Article record in Scopus or Elements, Altmetric bookmarklet

Journal metrics

(use caution: journal metrics are for journals, not articles)

Scopus, WoS SCImago, JCR (or the article record in WoS), WISP

Journal ranking and quartile in category

(use caution: journal metrics are for journals, not articles)

Scopus, WoS

SCImago, JCR (or the article record in WoS)

Books and chapters

Metrics and indicators for books and chapters can be challenging to find. This is due to the limitation in indexing of books in the major citation databases (such as Scopus and Web of Science) compared to journals. Google Scholar is another key tool for gathering citation metrics and reviews of books and chapters.

Metrics or indicators Source Where to find the information
Citation count Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar

Book and book chapter metrics

Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) (article level) Scopus Book/chapter record in Scopus
Altmetrics (e.g. social media and news mentions) Altmetric, PlumX Article record in Scopus or Elements, Altmetric bookmarklet
World wide and Australia library holdings of books WorldCat, Trove Book holdings in WorldCat and Trove
Book and/or chapter reviews Google Scholar, Library Search (Advance) Book review via Library Search
Credentials of the publisher and/or editors Google, Publisher website Search Google or the publisher's website

Awards received

Listing on university/school or professional body reading list, best seller list

Google, Publish website

 

Search Google or the publisher's website

Conference papers

Similar to books and chapters, article level metrics for conference papers can be difficult to find. The prestige and credential of the conference and its organiser can often indicator the quality and status of a conference in its related research fields.

It's critical to be strategic when choosing which conference to attend and present your papers. Check the Conference: The how-to-choose guide for more information.

Metrics or indicators Source Where to find the information
Citation count Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar Conference paper record in the relevant database
Prestige of the conference in a field Google, conference website Search Google or the conference website
Credentials of the conference organiser Google, conference website Search Google or the conference website

 

Author metrics

Author level metrics are available from your profiles in Elements, Scopus, Web of Science, or Google Scholar and take into account all your publications that are indexed (available) in the related database. The numbers might be different in different databases due to their coverage.

Metrics Source Where to find the information
Total number of publications Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar, Elements Author profiles
Total citations Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar Author profiles
h-index Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar Author profiles
i10-index Google Scholar Google Scholar profile
h5-index SciVal SciVal Overview tab
Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) (author level)

SciVal

SciVal Overview tab

 

Benchmarking

You can use our subscribed benchmarking tools (SciVal and InCites) to demonstrate the engagement and outstanding impact of your work within your discipline and the wider community. The benchmarking is available against your peers and overall institution, country or global performance.

Metrics Source Where to find the information
h-index (#) Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar SciVal, InCites
Total citation count (#) Scopus, WoS SciVal, InCites
Citation per document (#) Scopus, WoS SciVal, InCites
Percentage of cited Publications (%) Scopus, WoS SciVal, InCites
Field-Weighted Citation Impact or Normalized citation impact (#) Scopus, WoS SciVal, InCites
Output in Top Citation Percentiles (# or %) Scopus, WoS SciVal, InCites
Publications in Top Journal Percentiles by a specific journal ranking (# or %) Scopus, WoS SciVal, InCites
Collaboration (# or %) Scopus, WoS SciVal, InCites
Patent-citations count (#) Scopus SciVal
Number of citing countries (#) Scopus SciVal

Altmetrics

Altmetrics, or Alternative Metrics, refers to data that indicate the impact or attention a particular work receives on social media such as views, downloads, mentions in the media, and shares via platforms such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook and Mendeley. Altmetric providers also track citations in publications such as policy documents, patents, and medical guidelines.

Metrics Source Where to find the information
Social media - Tweets, Facebook likes, blog posts etc. PlumX, Altmetric.com PlumX via Scopus, Altmetric.com via Elements or Bookmarklet, Publisher websites
Article stats - views, downloads, saves etc. PlumX, Altmetric.com, DRO PlumX via Scopus, Altmetric.com via Elements or Bookmarklet, Publisher websites, DRO
News mentions PlumX, Altmetric.com PlumX via Scopus, Altmetric.com via Elements or Bookmarklet, Publisher websites
Policy mentions Altmetric.com Altmetric.com via Elements or Bookmarklet, Publisher websites
Patent citations Altmetric.com Altmetric.com via Elements or Bookmarklet, Publisher websites

Tip: Policy citations, patent citations, and news citations can demonstrate impact

Want to know if your research has been cited in any policy documents, patents, or the news? Altmetric.com captures this data for publications with a DOI, and the quickest way to access it is via Elements:

  1. Log in to Deakin Elements
  2. View your publication list by selecting Menu > Publications
  3. Select metrics from the focus on drop-down list
  4. Scroll down the list to see the Altmetric “donuts” and look out for purple stripes (policy) and light red stripes (news) or orange stripes (patents).

Myth: Using the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) as a metric for articles or authors

While the JIF may be helpful for evaluating the influence of journals within a particular subject area, it should not be used to measure the quality of an individual article, or the impact of a researcher. It has been used this way in the past, but bibliometrics experts discourage it, and recommend more appropriate article and author-level metrics.


How to: Locate your Scopus profile and view some basic research metrics

 

Your Scopus Author ID

  • Your Scopus Author ID is automatically generated the first time you publish an article indexed in Scopus
  • Future publications will be matched to your ID based on metadata such as your name, affiliation, and discipline. If this data is not able to be matched, a new Author ID may be created - if this happens, you can request to have the IDs merged
  • Your Scopus Author ID will only list your publications that are indexed in the Scopus database
  • Your profile provides metrics, and some interesting analysis features
  • Your Scopus Author ID is also used in the SciVal research analytics product
  • Visit the Scopus Support Centre for more information.

Finding your profile in Scopus

  1. Access Scopus from the Library website
  2. Change the Search option to Authors, and type your last name, first initial, and affiliation in the correct search fields
  3. Select the correct author from the search results
  • If you find multiple profiles exist for you, use the Author Feedback Wizard to merge your Scopus profiles, set your affiliation, and add or remove documents. You will need to create a log in for Scopus to use the Wizard - if you already have an Elsevier product log in that you use for SciVal or Mendeley, this will work.

Which metrics are available?

At the author level:

  • Documents by author (published in Scopus sources)
  • Total citations (in Scopus sources)
  • H-Index
  • Document and citation trends graph

At the document (article, book/chapter, conference paper) level:

  • Citations in Scopus
  • Percentile rank within subject area
  • Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)
  • PlumX Altmetrics: including social media mentions, downloads, Mendeley readers, and more.

How to: View your publications in Web of Science and collect basic research metrics

 

Create a Publons profile to manage your Web of Science publications

  • Publons is the new environment where you can benefit from the improved Web of Science ResearcherID, add your publications, track your citations, and manage your Web of Science record.
  • You need to create a Publons profile for yourself. Login with your Web of Science account or create a new one. It then assigns a unique ResearcherID to you. 
  • Note: If you had a public ResearcherID profile, it has moved to Publons automatically.
  • You can add any of your publications to your Publons profile, but metrics will only be provided for publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection database.
  • Create a list of your publications by searching Web of Science or uploading a file. For more information visit the ResearcherID-Publons FAQs.

Why should I have a Publons profile?

  • To make it easier to gather citation metrics from Web of Science, and the research analytics product, InCites.

Or search for yourself in Web of Science and claim your publications

  1. Access Web of Science from the Library A-Z Databases
  2. From the Select a database drop down menu, choose Web of Science Core Collection
  3. Choose the Author Search searching option
  4. Type your last name into the search box, and select the matching option. Do the same for your first name or initial. Include alternative names if appropriate, and click Find
  5. If Web of Science finds multiple profiles containing your publications, tick the ones you want to include and click View Combined Record
  6. Click on Claim This Record and follow the steps to verify publications. Once the publications are linked to your Publons profile you can make edits there which will update the profile in Web of Science
  7. There should now be a ResearcherID associated with your Publons profile and your Web of Science publications page - this can be used to search for yourself in InCites - which provides more extensive research metrics and analytics using the Web of Science dataset.

Get basic research metrics for Web of Science publications

From either your Publons profile or Web of Science record, you can now view basic metrics for your Web of Science publications:

  • Total publications
  • Sum of times cited
  • Citing articles
  • H-Index

Create a citation report

  1. From your Web of Science record, choose to view your publications as a set of results to export, analyse, and view full text
  2. Click Create Citation Report in the top right hand corner of the results screen
  3. Within the citation report you can view year on year information, average citations, and other citation totals both with and without self citations, and export the data to an excel file.

Use Analyse Results to learn more

Clicking Analyse Results on any set of search results (including your own publications viewed as a results set) splices the data by many different metadata fields and provides simple visualisations, for example, to view your publications by:

  •  Web of Science categories
  • Publication years
  • Document types
  • Funding agencies
  • Source (journal) titles
  • and more.

“OK - now I have some information about my publications, and my h-index. I am interested in more detail though - like how to benchmark my metrics and my citations with others. How can I do that?”

Find out how to use the SciVal and InCites research analytics products to benchmark your metrics with individuals, groups, institutions, research fields, and more.