Research Metrics and Impact: Author Metrics
Author Metrics
Author metrics are used to track how often an author's work is cited, and can demonstrate the reach and impact of a researcher's work, for use in grant applications, tenure, promotion and performance reviews.
Author metrics are also used to discover key researchers in the field, track the work of colleagues. and identify potential collaborators.
Author metric terms (H-Index, g-Index and i10 index)
The author's h-index was proposed by J.E. Hirsch in this 2005 article. It is the most widely used author metric, which measures a researcher’s impact based on the number of citations to their work.
h-index = number of papers (h) with a citation number ≥ h
e.g. If an author has an h-Index of 9, it means that out of the total number of published documents by that author, 9 of those documents have been cited at least 9 times. Citation counts may not reflect research impact in the Humanities. See limitations.
Web of Science and Scopus are the main source databases for the author h-index.
Harzing's Publish and Perish Manual explains the g-index is calculated based on the distribution of citations received by a given researcher's publication.
For example: A g-index of 20 means that an academic has published at least 20 articles that combined have received at least 400 citations.
It was suggested in 2006 by Leo Egghe (See: Theory and practise of the g-index).
The main advantage of the g-index is to provide credit for lesser-cited or non-cited work.
The i10-Index, created by Google Scholar in July 2011.
i10-Index = the number of publications with at least 10 citations.
Learn more: Google Scholar metrics
Note: In order to use the i10-Index, authors must have a public Google Scholar profile (See: Google Scholar Citations).
- Databases only gather data from the journals they index. Some are more comprehensive and cover more disciplines. Use more than one database to track citations and evaluate author impact. Other material, such as abstracts or conference papers, is generally not included.
- Author naming inconsistencies can lead to missed citations or multiple entries, so the author must check their database entries carefully. See the Researcher Profiles page for more information on author name ambiguity and attribution.
- h-index citation counts do not necessarily reflect research impact in the Humanities, as the key measuring tools are not always comprehensive in covering the humanities discipline.
- Many measuring tools are skewed towards STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and medicine) research.
- Web of Science counts the number of papers published, therefore favouring those authors who publish more frequently and are more advanced in their careers, not early-career researchers.
- Like other tools, the citation counts do not measure the number of times a work has been read or accessed (see Altmetrics)
For more information: See York University Libraries' Limitations of Bibliometrics
Key Measuring Tools for Author Metrics
Google Scholar Citations provides a simple way for authors to keep track of citations.
Authors can:
- see who is citing their publications,
- view citations over time, and
- calculate several citation metrics.
Make their profile public, so that it will appear in Google Scholar results when people search for their name.
Register for MyCitations to create an author profile, track your citations, and generate metrics.
Learn more: About Google Scholar citation profiles & Google Scholar Metrics
Use Publish or Perish to analyse Google Scholar data and calculate your h-index
- Download this free programme to analyse Google Scholar data
- Retrieve and analyse citation data to work out your author metrics
- Check the h-index for a journal
- Analyse authors publishing in lead journals in your area of research, especially if your work has limited representation in Web of Science or Scopus.
Learn more: Publish or Perish Tutorial (from Harzing.com)
Scopus is a multidisciplinary database from Elsevier, referencing journal articles, books and chapters back to 1823. Citation information goes back to 1996, however, data from 1970 is being added.
Use Author Search to generate a "Citation Overview" and the "Analyse author output" page. This analyses the publishing output of an author or a group of matched authors using the h-index.
The h-graph displays the h-index for a single author, multiple authors, or a group of selected documents. The h-index is based on the highest number of papers included that have had at least the same number of citations.
Learn more: How to Assess an Author's Impact in Scopus (training video from Elsevier/ Scopus)
Web of Science is a multidisciplinary citation database from Clarivate Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters, covering higher-impact journals in the natural and social sciences, arts and humanities. It is one of the biggest citation indexes, with citation information available back to 1900.
Use "Author Search" and click "Create Citation Report" to view the h-index, and other analytics like Author Beamplot.
Researchers can use ResearcherID to manage author names/citations; see Researcher Profiles for more information.
Learn more: What is Your Impact (From Clarivate Web of Science)
SciVal helps authors measure and analyse their research outputs by providing detailed author-level metrics and impact insights.
Sci Val can create Researcher Metrics reports that include the following:
- Publication Count: Total number of publications authored.
- Citation Count: Total number of citations received.
- h-index: A metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications.
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI): Compares the number of citations received by a researcher's publications to the average number of citations received by similar publications.
- Collaboration Metrics: Details on co-authorships, including international and institutional collaborations.
- Top Journal Percentiles: Percentage of publications in top-tier journals.
- Learn more: Analysing Your Research Impact with SciVal (Online learning module).
- Visit the SciVal support page (where there are lots of good guides and videos on how to use SciVal).
Use Dimensions to:
- Measure Publication Impact: Analyse individual publications, track citation trends, and identify key contributions to understand an author's research trajectory and influence.
- View Collaboration Networks: Visualise and analyse collaboration networks to identify potential research partners and understand collaborative impact. Examine co-authorship patterns, identify influential collaborators, and explore geographic and institutional diversity to build strategic partnerships and enhance research output.
- Learn more: Analysing Your Research Impact with Dimensions AI (online learning module)
Track Your Work
Keep up-to-date with research: see our guide on how to set up citation alerts for your publications and for authors worldwide in your subject/research areas.