Library Help: Office For Open Research

Publication metrics – such as the total number of citations received by a paper - have traditionally been used as a tool by decision-makers when assessing individual researcher performance. However, as part of a wider movement towards enhancing research culture, the higher education sector has been shifting towards the use of more narrative approaches and/or CVs to help diversify the concept of research impact.   
 
The Library provides access to a variety of tools and resources, which can help you to identify your most influential research papers, and provide you with a range of standardised citation performance data. These can help you to frame your achievements as a cohesive story centred around a body of work or selected publications. Alternative metrics (altmetrics), policy citations and research collaboration data can also serve as useful evidence in applications for promotions or funding, as well as for enhancing your impact narratives.  

When considering how best to showcase your research impact, you will first need to determine whether you are looking for author/individual or article/publication level metrics:  
 

• Author/ individual level metrics 
  These measure the impact of outputs produced by a single researcher and are designed to help you assess the cumulative impact of your work, rather than the impact of a single publication.  
   

• Article level metrics 
  These provide options to showcase the impact and reach of a published article. They use a variety of data sources to quantify how an article is being used, shared, and discussed. Certain bibliographic tools (such as SciVal) also allow you to group a number of publications together, and generate similar data for a specified group of papers 

Different types of research metrics & indicators 

The metrics (or indicators) described below can all be located at the author or article level as required, and can be used to provide tangible evidence of research impact within a larger narrative. It is recommended that multiple indicators are provided when crafting an impact narrative. A reliance on one specific indicator (such as your h-index) is no longer considered responsible practice. 
 
In many cases the Library provides a number of options for accessing the types of data listed below. The data produced is likely to be slightly different depending on the product you decide to use. This is because each product draws its data from a discrete set of publication sources. As a result of this it is good practice to check across different resources to assess which data best suits your purpose. 

Citation based metrics 
Traditional metrics which are based around the number of citations received by a publication, or author. Standardised metrics (such as FWCI) can offer compelling evidence of research impact when understood and applied correctly. 

• Author profile: Databases such as Scopus and Web of Science provide personal author profile pages which you can usefully cultivate in collaboration with the database provider. These profiles pages offer you a quick one-stop overview of personal metrics such as your total number of citations, your h-index, or the Field Weighted Citation Impact of your publications. 

• Citation count: Provides you with the total number of citations a body of work (or a specific paper) have received from a specific set of publications (e.g. all those which are indexed within Elsevier’s Scopus database)  

• h-index: A metric which can provide an indicator of the impact and productivity of an individual researcher. While it can be useful in certain instances this metric is widely recognised to have significant limitations. 

• Highly Cited status: These papers are recognised by Clarivate as residing in the top 1% of most cited papers in their field and publication year. Highly cited papers from an important component of Clarivate’s annual Highly Cited researchers awards 

• Hot papers: Publications produced within the last 2 years which have been flagged by Clarivate as receiving citations at a significantly advanced rate for work which is close to publication. 

• Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI): An Elsevier provided metric that measures how well your publications are cited compared to similar publications. FWCI is calculated by dividing the number of citations a researcher's work receives by the average number of citations similar work receives. Similar work is defined by factors like publication type, year, and subject area. 

• Category Normalised Citation Impact (CNCI): Similar to FWCI, Clarivate’s CNCI metric is calculated by dividing the number of citations for a document by the expected citation rate for documents with the same subject area, year of publication, and document type 

• Citation Percentiles: Statistical measures showing how frequently a publication is cited compared to others in its field. Publications in the top 1%, 5%, or 10% of citations can be said to demonstrate exceptional research impact. 

• Smart citations: AI enhanced tools such as Scite provide additional context to any citations your work has received. You are able to see how many citations directly support and/or replicate the conclusions / theories provided within your research   
   

Alternative metrics (Altmetrics)  

Alternative metrics - also known as altmetrics - are used to measure the impact of research beyond traditional citation counts. Altmetrics are designed to capture the reach and impact of research through online interactions and engagement. They can include metrics such as Wikipedia citations, or online engagement via Platforms such as Twitter/X and Blue Sky. 
 

Collaboration indicators. 
Providing evidence of collaboration with national / international authors can demonstrate your commitment to the sharing of ideas and production of high quality research. Products such as SciVal or Incites can provide you with visual representations (maps) of your collaborations or provide supporting data which can be used to create engaging research narratives e.g. “75% of my research involved collaboration with authors from Lower-Middle countries” 

Policy citation metrics:
These track how your research outputs have been cited within policy documents, such as government reports, guidelines, or recommendations issued by organisations like the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN), or national governments. Policy citation metrics can provide tangible evidence that your research has influenced real world policy-making and societal decisions. 

Patent citation metrics:
These measure how often your research outputs, have been cited in patents. Patent citation metrics can be used to provide evidence of practical applications of your research in creating new products, processes, or technologies.

Further Support

If you require data which is not covered via the above links, or need further clarification around what is available then please contact the Office for Open Research.