Bibliometrics, or research metrics are quantitative values designed to help evaluate research outputs according to a variety of indicators. These indicators may relate to the author, the journal or the paper. There are a large number of metrics available, but they all have some limitations, and any indications they give should be evaluated against a broader background of peer-review.
The tabs in the box below cover some of the metrics sources available at Leeds Beckett for Citation based metrics, Journal Rankings, H-Index and Altmetrics.
For more information on the responsible use of metrics and the limitations of metrics, please refer to the University Statement on Responsible Use of Metrics. Further sector wide guidance and good practice can be found in Agreement on Reforming Research Assement, DORA, the Leiden Manifesto, the Metric Tide report and the UK Reproducability Network Position on Responsible Research Evaluation.
There are a number of tutorials online to help you understand Metrics. MyRI's helpful tutorial on measuring research impact is one such tutorial, your Academic Librarian Team can also advise.
The most basic metrics are just number of citations a particular work has received.
Be aware:
Journal rankings are a means of judging the relative importance of a journal within its field. They should not be used to evaluate the quality of the individual articles within the journal.
Journal Impact Factor is only one of various metrics which can be used to rank journals, all are based on varying quantitative calculations based upon numbers of papers and citations. If a title has an Impact Factor, it is usually listed in the ‘About’ section of a journal’s homepage. An annually updated list of journals with Impact Factors is available, as well as a searchable list of titles.
There are several different Journal Impact Factors available.
1. JCR - Journal Citation Reports (ThompsonReuters)
If a title has an Impact Factor, it is usually listed in the ‘About’ section of a journal’s homepage. To find if the journal has an impact factor you can check the searchable list of titles. JCR are only available for the 12000 journals indexed within Web of Science covering Sciences, Technology and the Social Sciences. You can register to see some information about the journal but as LBU does not have access to Journal Citation Reports you will not be able to find the Journal Impact Factor.
2. SCJ - SCImago Journal Rank (Elsevier)
SCImago's "evaluation of scholarly journals is to assign weights to bibliographic citations based on the importance of the journals that issued them, so that citations issued by more important journals will be more valuable than those issued by less important ones." The weightings are averaged over the past 3 years. Includes the 15000 journals indexed within Scopus. Access available through Scopus.
3. SNIP - Source Normalised Impact per Paper
SNIP rankings attempt to remove the discipline-based subjectivity of other journal impact factors. The impact of a citation is given greater weighting in fields of study where citations are less common. Access to the rankings is available by Open Access from the CWTS at the University of Leiden.
Other useful tools include Publish or Perish which analyses data from Google Scholar: Some disciplines have specific lists for example in Business and Management the Chartered Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide
More information on journal rankings is available from module 3 of MyRI's helpful tutorial on measuring research impact, and your Academic Librarian can also advise.
The h-index is a popular metric in the sciences and is used to assess an individual, group of individuals or an institution. The h-index (a single number) takes into account productivity (paper count) AND impact (citations). If an individual has a h-index of 7, this means that 7 of their papers have been cited at least 7 times each.
A word of caution: As with other key metrics, the h-index can only be used effectively by comparing like with like, for example: similar institutions, individuals in a similar discipline and at a similar stage in their career. The calculation will also depend on the tool used.
STAFF note: Symplectic derives h-index from Web of Science (not subscribed to by Leeds Beckett) and Scopus and will only apply to publication records from those sources.
N.B.Google Scholar is a free alternative that has broader coverage but lacks the quality control of Scopus It is important to note that citation data from each source may vary.
Altmetrics are alternative metrics - rather than the traditional bibliometrics that measure your citation counts and journal impact factors that you may be used to.
Altmetrics measure the 'mentions' of your research (anything with a DOI), through social media, blogs, news reports and websites. They can be a powerful tool in helping you disseminate your research beyond the academic sphere, providing results as soon as your research is published and allowing you to ensure it is represented and interpreted accurately.
There are several tools you can use to check your alternative metrics;Impact Story,Kudos,Plum Analytics and Altmetric.
Plum Analytics are available as a user in SCOPUS (click on All Metrics under the article). We also use Altmetric integrated with Symplectic and our repository - you may have seen the coloured 'donut' icon next to your article which indicates the Altmetric score for each output:
You can see your donuts on Symplectic or next to each record in the repository. Each coloured strand represents a different type of 'mention' and Altmetric calculates an overall score, giving more weight to news reports and adjusting for duplication. Clicking on the donut will take you to a detailed page where you can see each of these mentions and where they originate. This enables you to monitor how your research is disseminated.
The Research Service provide support with altmetrics and using social media to effectively disseminate your research - please contact us if you would like any guidance.
STAFF note: Symplectic Elements tracks altmetrics via http://www.altmetric.com/ for any record that includes a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
Look out for the altmetric "donut" on your records in Symplectic:
