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Strategic Publishing, Research Impact & Researcher Profiles: Author Level Metrics

This guide covers scholarly publishing strategies, how to choose a journal, discusses Open Access publishing models, how to evaluate research impact, and provides tips around managing researcher profiles

Author level metrics

 

Author metrics are citation-based metrics used to measure a researcher or academic's publication impact. They include the volume of research publications, the number of citations per publication, and the performance of these publications.

H-index 

 

The H-index measures both the productivity and citation impact of publications. It is one of the most common author measures and is best applied when comparing authors from the same field of research, as citation practice can differ greatly between areas. 

 

Example: If an author with an h-index of 6 has at least six journal articles that have each been cited at least six times. 

 

Tools for H-Index

  • Scopus - In Scopus, h-index can be found in the Author Profile or Citation Overview. Search for an author. If there is more than one profile linked to the author, you can find the author's h-index via Citation Overview on a set of results each time you look it up. If only one profile is linked to the author, you can click on the author's name and open the Author Profile.
  • Web of Science Core Collection - The h-index can be found in the Author Profile on the Web of Science platform. Search for a researcher. If only one profile is linked to the researcher, you can click on the author's name and open the Author Profile. If more than one profile is related to the researcher, you can select the profiles and click on View as a combined record.
  • Google Scholar - Google Scholar covers a wide range of sources, from academic journals to conferences, technical reports and e-prints. However, it can be considered a less authoritative source than the Web of Science and others. H-index can be found in Google Scholar Author Profile. 

 

Field normalised metrics

 

Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) are field normalised metrics that consider the differences in research behaviour across disciplines. They are useful for researchers working in several disciplines or when comparing disciplines. However, there are limitations to the indicators. For example, they ignore the total volume of research outputs. When dealing with small sets of publications, the FWCI and CNCI values may be inflated by a single highly cited paper. 

FWCI

FWCI is a Scopus indicator based on the ratio of total citations actually received for output to the total citations expected, based on the global average of the subject field.

 

Example: A FWCI of 1.00 means that the output performs just as expected for the global average. A score of 1.48 indicates the work is cited 48% more than expected. 

 

Tools for field-normalised metrics 

  • SciVal - is a research analytics tool that uses Scopus data from 1996 to calculate the FWCI metric. Select the Overview module to find a researcher’s FWCI for the last 5 years; for older data metrics, use the Benchmarking module. 
  • InCites - a research analytics tool based on Web of Science Core Collection data dating back to 1980, provides CNCI metrics. Select the Analyze module to find a researcher’s CNCI. 

Useful links: