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Researchers: Research metrics & evaluation

Metrics explained

citation counts

H-index

Journal metrics

Impact factors

Normalised Impact Factors

Citation scores are normalized to account for disciplinary differences

–Source Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP)
–journalmetrics.scopus.com

Prestige metrics

Measures the influence of a journal

•SciMago journal rank
–Journals indexed in Scopus
–www.scimagojr.com
•Eigenfactor
–Journals indexed in the Web of Science
–www.eigenfactor.org

Ways of increasing citations

•Choose your title carefully
–Identify keywords
•Type of publication/article
•Co-authoring

Ways of increasing citations

•Where is the journal indexed?
•Does the publisher allow open access publishing?
•Be aware of “predatory” journals
•Publish in outlets your target audiences are already reading

Ways of increasing citations

Open Access

ORCID

Using metrics responsibly

•Seminal research is often taken for granted and not cited
•Small/niche research field
•Bias towards older, more established researchers (i.e. those publishing over a longer period)
•Incomplete and uneven coverage of citation indexes (across disciplines, publication types and languages)
•Negative citation
•Non-unique and inconsistent author names
•Incorrect citing of sources
Differences in citation patterns (by material type)
Differences in citation patterns (by discipline)
Differences in citation patterns (over time)

Where are metrics used

Times Higher etc.

Altmetrics

•Qualitative indicators
–Downloads
–Public policy documents
–Discussion on research blogs
–Media coverage
–Mendeley “shares”
–Mentions on social networks
•Complementary to citation based metrics

SciVal