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Research Impact

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
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:

Author Name Consistency

Author name consistency with an icon with an icon of a personMaintaining 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

ORCID (Open Researcher and 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 ResearcherID

A unique identifier by Clarivate Analytics that allows researchers to manage their publication lists and avoid author misidentification. The Researcher ID can be linked to ORCID.

Scopus Author Identifier

Unique identifier used in SCOPUS, published by Elsevier. The SCOPUS Author ID can be linked to ORCID.

Unique identifiers help consolidate your publications under one author profile (e.g., use ORCiD, ResearchID, Scopus Author Identifier).

University of Alberta Author Affiliation

UAlberta logo greenUse 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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