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Research Impact Metrics

Provides an overview of Research Impact Metrics

Citations count metrics

Citations are a established measure of research impact, however, analysis offered by different tools will have varying results.

When reviewing citation counts consider: 

  • databases collect data from different sources and calculate their metrics differently
  • a journal you published in might not be indexed by the main citation analysis tools: Web of Science, Scopus or Google Scholar
  • recent research articles may not yet have been cited
  • not all contributions to journals are citable e.g. letters to the editor
  • formats such as books and web sites may not be counted
  • publication dates may affect counts
  • frequency of a journal may affect counts
  • highly cited articles don't always mean excellent research, esteem must also be taken in to account
  • research measures across disciplines may differ

Using main citation count databases

On the Document details page for an article in Scopus, select View all metrics.

Scopus Metrics included on this page are:

  • Total number of times the document has been cited in Scopus (cited by documents that are within Scopus).
  • Number of citations received by year.
  • Citation benchmarking – a percentile showing how the number of citations received by this document compare with the average for similar documents.
  • Field-Weighted Citation Impact – indicates how the number of citations received by this document compares with the average number of citations received by all other similar publications indexed by the Scopus database.

o    A Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 1.00 indicates that the publications have been cited at world average for similar publications.

o    A Field-Weighted Citation Impact of greater than 1.00 indicates that the publications have been cited more than would be expected based on the world average for similar publications, for example a score of 1.44 means that the outputs have been cited 44% more times than expected.

o    A Field-Weighted Citation Impact of less than 1.00 indicates that the publications have been cited less that would be expected based on the world average for similar publications, for example a score of 0.85 means 15% less cited than world average.

o    Field-Weighted Citation Impact metrics are useful to benchmark regardless of differences in size, disciplinary profile, age and publication type composition.

Note that metrics displaying the Snowball icon are compiled according to Snowball Metrics, an initiative of research-intensive universities around the globe to ensure that metrics have robust methodologies and are not tied to any particular provider of data.

PlumX Metrics included on this page are:

  • Citation data from various citation indexes including patent, clinical and policy citations.
  • Social media engagement including tweets, likes and shares.
  • Mentions such as blog posts, news articles, comments and reviews.
  • Captures including citation exports, bookmarks and followers.
  • Usage such as abstract views, clicks, and WorldCat holdings.

On the search results page for an article in Web of Science, select Create citation report.

Web of Science Metrics included on this page are:

  • Total number of times the document has been cited in Web of Science (cited by documents that are within Web of Science).
  • Number of citations received by year.

On the full record page for an article in Web of Science, the following metrics are displayed:

  • All times cited counts across all the databases contained in Web of Science.
  • Web of Science Usage Count measuring the number of times the full text of the article has been accessed via links or the article has been saved for use in a bibliographic management tool.

 

A Cited Reference search will display the number of articles within Web of Science which have cited a particular article, even if the article itself it not indexed in Web of Science.

To carry out a Cited Reference search:

  • select Cited Reference Search from the drop-down menu above the search box

  • enter the details of the article you wish to find citations for and click Search

  • the article details will be listed, including a 'Citing Articles' column

  • click View Record to access the article record in Web of Science

 

Google Scholar @ MQ allows you to set up a profile which contains your publications and citations counts.

To create your profile:

Go to Google Scholar @ MQ and click the "My Citations" link at the top of the page

  1. Log in with an existing Google account, or create a new one

  2. Complete the form with your details, and click the "Next step" button

  3. Review the list of publications, and use the "Add" button to add them to your profile. When you've added them all, click the "Next step" button

  4. Choose how you would like to deal with changes to publication and citation data, and click the "Go to my profile" button to view your profile

  5. If there are articles you've written which don't appear in your list of publications on your profile, you can add them manually by selecting "Add" from the "Actions" drop-down menu

  6. To make your profile public, click on either the "Make my profile public" link in the yellow box at the top of the page, or the "edit" link next to "My profile is private"

What can I do with Article Level metrics?

  • discover who is citing your research
  • find other articles that are highly cited in your discipline
  • demonstrate evidence of sustained growth in citations
  • demonstrate evidence of high quality refereed publications, creative works or other scholarly activities

Discipline specific databases that include citation counts

Keeping Current Alerts

Citation alerts notifiy you by e-mail whenever a document or author has been cited by a new article.