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Overview

Guide purpose

Find measures of research performance, impact and engagement to use when applying for grants, academic promotion, or use in other cases.

Key measures include:

Disclaimer

This guide introduces you to some of the most commonly used author, publication level and journal metrics.

However, please note that the numbers you find are not absolutes. They should be used responsibly in conjunction with a range of other quantitative and qualitative measures of esteem and impact.

Responsible use

Using quantitative measures is only one approach.

Always consider:

  • weaknesses and strengths
  • how to correctly use the metric
  • what you are measuring and if the metric chosen is appropriate
  • using multiple metrics and measures to provide a well-rounded picture
  • discipline expectations

Adapted from QUT's:

Learn more

Key tools

Clarivate Analytics

Elsevier

Other

Web of Science Core Collection

A large multidisciplinary database which provided metrics including author h index, times cited, cited references and Journal Impact Factors.

Scopus

A large multidisciplinary database which provides metrics including the author h index, total citations, cited references, Field Weighted Citation Impact, CiteScore, SCImago Journal and Rank, and Source Normalized Impact per Paper.

Google Scholar Metrics

Ranks publications by recent citations to help authors consider where to publish research. Available metrics include h5-index and h-5 medium. Also show public access mandates.

InCites

Analyse institutional productivity and benchmark your research outputs against peers worldwide.

SciVal

Visualise your research performance, benchmark yourself relative to peers, identify and analyse research trends, and create uniquely tailored reports.

Google Scholar Citations

Set up an author profile to showcase publications and citation metrics. Choose to update your profile automatically or manually.

InCites Journal Citation Reports (JCR)

A tool for journal evaluation which allows you to find a journal impact factor and compare journals within subject categories.

SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR)

A tool for journal evaluation which allows you to find SJR rankings for journal which is normalised across subject categories.

Altmetric Explorer

Measures research engagement through a range of areas including social media, news media, and Mendeley. UniSA's institutional profile shows all outputs indexed for the current year and previous ten years and is managed by the UniSA's Business Intelligence Planning (BiP).

 

PlumX Metrics (available via Scopus)

Creates and categorises metrics on individual research outputs. Includes usage, mentions, social media and citations.