Research Metrics Toolkit

In other disciplines, different databases specialise in providing metrics data about different kinds of publications (e.g. journal article, book, book chapter, etc.).

However, obtaining metrics data in Law is a much more manual exercise (owing to the challenges summarised above).

This means that the same approach - manual searching by title and author - is usually the best option, irrespective of what kind of source you are searching for.

Databases where you are likely to find references to your work (with advice about how to search them) are listed below.

Give careful thought to record-keeping, ideally before you start.

• It can be advisable simply to use a spreadsheet or Word document.

Some things to bear in mind:

• When searching across databases, it can be difficult to identify duplicates.
• Citation numbers are generally (very) low in the Law discipline.
• For these reasons, it may be useful to include in your records specific information about citing references (e.g. Title, Author, etc.).

Even if you have not used EndNote before, compiling an EndNote library of references that have cited your work can be an excellent resource. Using EndNote, you can:

• export detailed citation data from many databases with a few clicks
• easily identify duplicate references
• see at a glance who is citing your work and in what context

If you think EndNote could assist you and are not sure where to start, please feel free to contact your Librarian.

Remember that,

• there are more ways to have impact in Law than simply to be cited in academic works
• in a field where citation numbers are low and peer review is decisive, the context surrounding citing references can provide important evidence of impact

For example,

• has your work been cited by esteemed authors (e.g. professors of international standing, textbook authors, judges), or in journals that have a high impact factor?
• has your work, or an article that cited your work, been referred to in a judicial or administrative decision?
• is your work listed in non-academic documents relied on by legal researchers and practitioners (e.g. CaseBase or FirstPoint case summaries)?
• have you been cited by policy reports or textbooks?

As a Law researcher, you may at various times have to provide evidence of your research impact to audiences or reviewers who are not from a legal background.

Hence it may be helpful, as you compile metric information, to consider how it might be framed numerically to impress a non-legal reader.

e.g. X publication has 10 citations in Google Scholar, 6 of these in journals with an A or A* ranking in the ABDC Journal Quality List (Australia's most authoritative journal ranking index for the Law discipline).