Publication metrics include citation counts for articles, reports, conference proceedings, books, book chapters, and other publications. Publication metrics also include alternative metrics, such as mentions on social media and the number of downloads received.
As quantitative indicators, research metrics (including publication metrics) tell only one part of the story of the impact of research or creative work, and should not be considered a proxy or a substitute for the expert, qualitative assessment of research and creative works. Please see this page for important guidelines about the use of research metrics in evaluation:
This overview of article metrics includes links to the sources where the metrics may be found. Some of these metrics are also available for other types of publications, such as reports, conference proceedings, and books.
Number of citations received by a publication. Sources for citation counts include:
The Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is an article metric which compares the total citations received by a publication compared to the average number of citations received by all other similar publications from the same research field in the 3 years following publication.
The global mean of the FWCI is 1.0, so an FWCI of 1.50 means 50% more cited than the world average; whereas, an FWCI of .75 means 25% less cited than the world average.
Source for Field Weighted Citation Impact:
The Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) for a single publication benchmarks its citations received against other publications in the same subject area, year and format. CNCI can also apply across several subject areas although it is a more meaningful metric if it is only for a single subject area.
A CNCI of 1 would be on par with the average citations for the subject area; more than 1 would be above average; and anything below 1 would be less than average.
SciVal is the source for Category Normalized Citation Impact. Syracuse University Libraries does currently subscribe to SciVal. Field Weighted Citation Impact, available in Scopus, is a similar metric to consider.
Although specific values are not available, "Above Average" or "Below Average" CNCI for an article may be viewed in the following database:
Paper that is in the top 1%, 5%, 10% or 25% of most cited for a given subject category, year and publication type.
Sources for article ranking include:
Paper published in the last 10 years with the most citations (top 1%) when compared with papers in the same field and publication year.
Sources for highly cited papers include:
Paper published in the last 2 years with the most citations (top 0.1%) in the most recent two-month period compared with papers with same field and publication date.
Sources for hot papers include:
Mentions are a type of alternative metric that include mentions on social media, blogs, websites, mainstream media coverage (such as newspapers, news stories and news videos) and mentions in other online sources, such as Wikipedia and Reddit, as well as use in policy documents, patents, reports, and syllabi.
Please see the Alternative Metrics page for more information about Altmetrics.
Sources for mentions include any website or platform where the publication is mentioned as well as the following:
Views are a type of alternative metric that includes top views percentile and views per publication.
Sources for views include any website or platform where publication is made available, such as:
Downloads are a type of alternative metric that counts the number of times a publication has been downloaded.
Sources for downloads include any website or platform hosting the publication, such as:
Mendeley Readership is an alternative metric that counts the number of Mendeley (a citation management tool) users who have added a particular document to their Mendeley library.
Source for Mendeley Readership:
Much of the information above has been adapted from RMIT University Library's research guide table on Publication metrics and where to find them.
Book metrics include citation counts and alternative metrics, such as mentions in social media, on syllabi, citations in public policy documents, publisher sales figures, and more. Please see above for more information about Mentions, Views, Downloads, and Mendeley Readership (the latter three being especially relevant for ebooks and ebook chapters).
Going beyond metrics, book prizes, awards, honors, invited book talks, editions and translations, being published by a high-quality publisher or being included in a book with a well-respected editor can indicate influence, reach, quality, and impact.
Depending on your discipline, it may be just as important to record how many times your books and book chapters have been cited as it is to track citations to your articles. There are a number of resources that count citations to books and book chapters.
Abstracts and citations of journals, books, conference proceedings, and patents covering science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, includes Scopus AI.
Index and abstracts to books and journal articles about sociology, social work, aging, gerontology, child and family studies, marriage and family therapy and other social sciences.
Library holdings (content in a library's collection) are a type of alternative metric. Librarians curate or purchase materials to support curriculum, research, or general interest. This indicates a degree of visibility and influence of a work. WorldCat identifies holdings in over 10,000 libraries worldwide. As with all metrics, access to scholarship (including books) has value for scholarly impact in a way that is not always quantifiable.
If only counted, the number of reviews a book receives could be considered an alternative metric. However, book reviews in academic publications not only discuss quality, but place the book and its author in relationship to their discipline, providing context and going beyond metrics. Many academic journals have book review columns. Some disciplines have publications devoted to book reviews.
Index and abstracts to books and journal articles about sociology, social work, aging, gerontology, child and family studies, marriage and family therapy and other social sciences.