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Research Metrics

Author Level Metrics

Author Level Metrics

author

 

The author level metrics reflect the productivity and impact of a researcher by assessing a researcher’s publications. They are usually accompanied with profiles of scholars listing their research outputs. The most common metrics are number of publications, number of citations, and h-index.

To demonstrate research impact beyond citations, consider writing a narrative CV which emphasizes quality over quantity, and include narratives about the broader impact.

Times Cited

Times Cited

Times cited is the total number of citations received by the author's publications indexed by a certain database.

Popular databases include Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus. While they have different criteria in journal evaluation and selection, the coverage in the databases are different. Thus, the numbers of publications and citations for the same author may be different among the databases.

Setting-up and managing author profiles can help to clearly reflect an author's previous publications and demonstrate research productivity and impact. For more details on popular author profiles, check the guide at: https://libguides.lib.hku.hk/authorprofile

 

Use and limitations

Use
  • It is straight forward and easy to understand.
limitations
  • Citations are not a direct measure of quality.
  • Numbers of citations are also impacted by the variable publication volumes of different disciplines. So, citations should not be used to compare researchers in different fields.

 

Access

Popular platforms include:

 

References

  • Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). (2024). Guidance on the responsible use of quantitative indicators in research assessment. DORA. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10979644
  • Mingers, J., & Leydesdorff, L. (2015). A review of theory and practice in scientometrics. European Journal of Operational Research, 246(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.04.002

     

h-index

h-index

The h-index for an individual author is defined as the number of his/her papers that have been cited at least h times. So h represents the top h papers, all of which have at least h citations. For example, an author with a h-index of 10 has ten papers, each with at least ten citations.

 

h-index

en:user:Ael 2, vectorized by pl:user:Vulpecula, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Use and limitations

Use
  • It combines both productivity and citation impact in a single measure that is easily understood and intuitive.
  • It is robust to poor data since it ignores the lower down papers where the problems usually occur.
limitations
  • It is insensitive to the actual numbers of citations received by the papers. E.g., two researchers with the same h-index could have dramatically different actual numbers of citations.
  • It does not discriminate well as it only employs integer values. Many researchers may share the same value.
  • It provides no contextual information, e.g., career stage, research area, or the nature of the author’s contributions to each paper.

 

Access

Popular platforms include:

 

References

  • Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). (2024). Guidance on the responsible use of quantitative indicators in research assessment. DORA. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10979644
  • Mingers, J., & Leydesdorff, L. (2015). A review of theory and practice in scientometrics. European Journal of Operational Research, 246(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.04.002