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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 behaviour 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 Introduction to Research Impact tutorial.
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 |
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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:
- Web of Science Core CollectionInterdisciplinary coverage through citation indexes for journals, conference proceedings, limited books, and data. Emphasis on the sciences, medical, engineering and, to a much lesser extent, social sciences and humanities. A narrower number of journals are included, but for a longer/historic time period. For more: Web of Science Group.
Author Name Consistency
Maintaining a consistent form of your name is key in distinguishing your research and publishing from the work of others.
E.g., Always using Henry Zhang, not intermixing H. Zhang and Henry Zhang in different papers.
Unique Authorship Identifiers
Unique identifiers like the following help consolidate your publications under one author profile:
- ORCiD (Open Researcher & Contributor ID)A persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from one another. See the Making the Most of ORCID guide to learn more.
- Web of Science ResearcherIDAn 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.
- Scopus Author IdentifierAn identifier used in Scopus, published by Elsevier. The Scopus Author ID can be linked to ORCID.
University of Alberta Author Affiliation
Use University of Alberta as your affiliation/location for all publishing, journals, or grant agencies. Ensure your research is credited to you and linked to the University of Alberta.
(E.g., SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR submissions.)
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