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Research Metrics Toolkit

“I'm applying for an NHMRC grant, and I need some metrics to demonstrate the impact of my recent publications. Where can I find this information?”

Metrics for Health Researchers

For health 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. Coverage for health topics is good 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.


Tip: 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

How to: Benchmark your metrics with individuals, groups, institutions, research fields, and more.

The research analytics tools SciVal and InCites allow you to compare your metrics with entities from individual researchers, to the whole world. SciVal uses the Scopus database as its dataset, and InCites uses Web of Science. For the best results, you'll need to make sure your profiles in these databases are up to date.

Find out how to use SciVal and InCites.


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.