Guides: Research Impact: Author Metrics

Author Metrics

There are various ways to measure your research impact. Traditionally, impact has been measured using the number of times your publications have been cited. While citation metrics are commonly used, there are limitations. For example, citation behavior is discipline dependent, h-index does not account for author placement in the author list, which is of significance to some disciplines, and metrics vary from one data tool to another. Citation metrics need to be used cautiously and within discipline context. For an in-depth exploration of author metrics, try the University of Alberta Library's Introduction to Research Impact tutorial.

Also view What is the h-index and what are its limitations? Or: Stop using the h-index from ScholCommLab. "If used at all, the h-index should only complement qualitative research assessment. Ultimately, one quantitative metric will never be able to fully capture a researcher’s work."

Calculating your h-index:

There are subscription-based and free services to calculate your h-index. Each tool covers different journals, and the metrics may vary between databases.

h-index	The most widely used research metric. It measures both productivity and citation impact of an author's scholarly output.
g-index	Proposed in 2006 by Leo Egghe as an alternative to the H-index. It adds more weight to highly cited articles.
Publish or Perish	A tool you can use if you find that not all of your publications are included in a database.

Calculating h-index example:

Article Citations

1 30

2 22

3 14

4 11

5 7

————————— h-index = 5 (five articles have at least 5 citations per article)

6 4

7 2

You can use these resources to calculate your h-index:

Scopus
Use the author search to locate your profile - your profile will provide various metrics including h-index, field-weighted citation impact, and more.

To learn more about logging into Scopus, see this guide.

Experts Directory
When logged into your profile, Experts Directory will display an h-index based on your claimed publications and their citation counts from Scopus and Dimensions data sources.

Google Scholar
Your Google Scholar profile will calculate an h-index. This number will typically be higher than what you find in Scopus or Dimensions, in part because Google Scholar pulls in more citation data, though it is less well-curated and may contain errors.

Unique Identifiers and Author Name Consistency

Maintaining a consistent form of your name is key in distinguishing your research and publishing from the work of others.

Unique identifiers like the following help consolidate your publications under one author profile:

ORCiD
"ORCID, which stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID, is a global, not-for-profit organization sustained by fees from our member organizations. We are community-built and governed by a Board of Directors representative of our membership with wide stakeholder representation. ORCID is supported by a dedicated and knowledgeable professional staff...ORCID’s vision is a world where all who participate in research, scholarship, and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, borders, and time."
Scopus Author Identifier
An identifier used in Scopus, published by Elsevier. The Scopus Author ID can be linked to ORCID.
Web Of Science ResearcherID
An identifier by Clarivate (which publishes Web of Science) that allows researchers to manage their publication lists and avoid author misidentification. The ResearcherID can be linked to ORCID.

OK State Author Affiliation

Use Oklahoma State University as your affiliation/location for all publishing, journals, or grant agencies (rather than a department/college). This will ensure that your research is credited to you and linked to OSU in databases.

You may also be asked to provide an institutional identifier - Oklahoma State University (Stillwater) has the following standardized identifiers:

Research Organization Registry (ROR): 01g9vbr38
Global Research Identifier Database (GRID) (replaced by ROR): grid.65519.3e
International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI): 0000 0001 0721 7331

Attribution

Content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and is adapted from "Research Impact" by University of Alberta Library Research Impact Services which is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and their Introduction to Research Impact Tutorial

Research Impact

Research Impact: Author Metrics

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Matt Upson

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