Research Guides

Research Metrics

This is a guide to the various metrics used to measure research impact.

Research Metrics

This guide will help you understand and locate:

Journal-level Metrics

Author-level Metrics

Article-level Metrics

Altmetrics

What are metrics?

Scholarly metrics are a way for the impact of an article, author, or journal to be measured quantitatively. There are different methods used in order to calculate a scholarly impact with the intent that these works will be judged solely on impact to the field as opposed to using criteria without universal standards.

There has been much debate about the use of impact factors in academia. Some academics feel that scholarly metrics place too much emphasis on the quantity of work as opposed to the quality of the work being produced. There is also a concern that focusing on metrics will pressure authors to publish "hot-topic" articles in only the most "impactful" journals as opposed to producing and experimenting with more original work.

Increase Your Impact

  • Use personal/institutional names consistently
  • Register with ORCID 
  • Provide a concise, well-structured abstract
  • Employ appropriate keywords/headings
  • Retain rights to your manuscripts
  • Archive everything you can!
  • Present at conferences
  • Blog! Tweet!

Beyond Metrics

Journal metrics and rankings are not synonymous with journal quality. To get a fuller picture of a journal's quality, researchers should examine the journal itself and think critically about its policy, leadership, articles, etc. The site Think. Check. Submit. lists questions that researchers should ask themselves when evaluating a journal, especially when considering whether to publish with that journal.