This document discusses how bibliometrics and citation analysis can be used to measure research impact and quality. It describes various bibliometric databases like Web of Science, Scopus, and Publish or Perish that allow users to track citations and measure researcher influence. It also discusses newer altmetric tools that analyze social media to provide alternative measures of scholarly impact. While bibliometrics are useful, the document cautions that they must be interpreted carefully given disciplinary differences and limitations of citation data.

1. Using Metrics to Determine
Research Impact
Julia Gross, ECU Library
Contact Info: www.ecu.edu.au/research/week

2. What is bibliometrics?
• Quantitative analysis of research
publications based on citations
• Online tracking
Contact Info: www.ecu.edu.au/research/week

3. Bibliometrics applications
• Review the literature in a discipline
• Map influential researchers in a field
• Measure research quality and impact
• Map collaboration between researchers
• Compare output of individuals, research
centres, and institutions (ERA)
• Compare national publication
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4. Citation analysis - tools
Web of Science
Scopus
Publish or Perish
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5. Web of Science journal coverage
Science Citation Index ~8,300
Social Science Citation Index ~4,500
Arts & Humanities Citation Index ~2,300
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6. Types of Web of Science searches
• Search (topic, author,
publication)
• Author finder
• Cited reference
search
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7. Researcher cites others …
Contact Info: www.ecu.edu.au/research/week Web of Science

8. Researcher is cited by others…
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9. Scopus
• Citation database
• Subject coverage
– Scientific
– Technical
– Medical
– Social sciences
– Arts & Humanities
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10. Types of Scopus searches
• Document search
• Author search
• Affiliation search
• Advanced search
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11. Scopus – Analyse results tool
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12. Scopus – author evaluator tool
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Hamilton, G.
Resnicow, K.
Shaw, T
Waters, S.
Milne, E.
Johnston, R.
Giles-Corti, B.
English, D.R.
Hall, M.
Hearn, L.
Jacoby, P.
Burns, S.
Maycock, B.
McManus, A.
Monks, H.
Shaw, T.
James, S.
Hart, B.
Howat, P.
Gabebodeen…
Kambaran, N.S.
Beatty, S.E.
Langner, H.G.
Lower, T.
Bishop, B.
Broughton, H.R.
Miller, M.
Kane, R.
Brown, G.
Contact Info: www.ecu.edu.au/research/week
Nichols, T.
O'Connell, M.
Pearce, N.
Perren, S.
Reddy, S.P.
Costa, C.
Roberts, C.M.
Runions, K.
Dooley, J.
Epstein, M.
Slee, P.
Stevenson, M.
Vaughan, R.D.
Falconer, S.
Excel graphs of bibliometrics data
Fenton, J.
Williams, P.
Series2

14. Scopus Web of Science overlap
Contact Info: www.ecu.edu.au/research/week Source: Iselid, L. (2007)

15. Publish or Perish (Google Scholar)
Citation analysis of
Google Scholar data
Software download
Contact Info: www.ecu.edu.au/research/week

16. Google Scholar
“cited by”
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17. Why use Publish or Perish?
• Better than using Google Scholar on its own
• Broad multidisciplinary coverage
• Includes results across many major databases
• Better for social sciences, arts and humanities
• Produces research performance metrics
• Download results to Excel
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18. Which database to use?
• Scopus
• Web of Science
• Publish or Perish
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19. Journal metrics
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20. Journal metrics, measuring journal impact
• Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
– Science Edition
– Social Sciences Edition
• Impact factors
• Highly cited journals in a discipline
• Leading journals in a discipline
• Discipline specific
Contact Info: www.ecu.edu.au/research/week

21. JCR impact factors in Nanotechnology
e.g. in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology …
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22. Comparing journals on Scopus
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23. Future developments…
Other tools, new developments…
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24. Altmetrics to determine research impact
• Altmetrics manifesto
• New ways to measure impact
• New metrics based on analysing the social web
• Scholarship is changing
• Scholars use the Web: blogs, Twitter, social media
Source: altmetrics.org (2012)
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25. Altmetrics new tools – Web 2.0
• Reference managers • Mendeley, Zotero
• Social media • Blogs, Twitter
• Social bookmarking • Delicious
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Priem, J. (2012) http://bit.ly/x2aSI9

26. Bibliometrics – handle with care!
• Disciplinary differences
• Citation impact vs Impact of research
• Assumption that
• Cited articles have been read/used
• But we also have
• Time-lag
• Self citing
• Diplomatic citing/non-citing
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27. Any questions?
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