University Libraries: Scholarly Communication: Research Metrics and Identification

Metrics and Altmetric Tools

Traditional metrics help authors track citation patterns. Common metrics include:

Citation Counts: the number of citations for an article, author, or academic journal.
H-Index: a measure of author productivity (number of published papers) and impact (number of citations).
Journal impact factor: a measure of the annual frequency with which the average journal article has been cited in a given year.

Altmetrics, short for alternative metrics, capture additional components of publication impact, including but not limited to publication views, discussions, and saves.

Google Scholar Citations
Google Scholar Citations provide a simple way for authors to keep track of citations to their articles. You can check who is citing your publications, graph citations over time, and compute several citation metrics.
PlumX Metrics
PlumX Metrics categorizes metrics into five categories: citations, usage, captures, mentions, and social media.

Scopus
Scopus is an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature including scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings. Click the "Authors" tab above the search boxes for author citations, cited documents, co-authors, and author history.

Researcher Identification

Researcher identity consists of many components, including name (as it appears in published works), institutional affiliations, publications, and citations of an author’s work.

ORCID
ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities.