Bibliometrics

The ability to assess the impact of research publications is a growing area of importance with applications in securing funding and career development.

Bibliometrics provides a quantitative analysis of the influence of research. It looks at the citation counts for articles to see how they have impacted on the research landscape and with the introduction of altmetrics looks at how the influence of the article can be measured. It stands alongside qualitative measures of excellence such as peer review.

Available bibliometrics include:

• Authors and Institutions: This can include citation counts and publication counts. This is often expressed as a h-index. The maximum value of h such that the given author/journal has published at least h papers that have each been cited at least h times
• Articles: This can include traditional measures such as citation counts, but also altmetrics like Facebook posts, Twitter mentions and Reddit articles.
• Journals: Most journal-level metrics focus on scoring or ranking journals. This is often based on citations. Examples include Journal impact factor (mean citations over two years) and CiteScore (citations divided by publications over the last four years).
• Examples of these metrics are available via the University of Hull Biblometrics SkillsGuide

It is worth noting that citation measures are most developed for research in the sciences and social sciences. The arts and humanities, due to disciplinary differences, have fewer tools available for such analysis. It is also difficult to compare impact factors of journals in different discipline areas as citation practices vary between disciplines.

How to raise your research profile

• Use a consistent form of your name wherever possible
• Use an author ID system, e.g. ResearcherID, ORCID
• Ensure you include your institutional affiliation
• Promote your research via appropriate social media
• Use self-citation in a responsible way