Research Impact & Metrics Guide

While the field of bibliometrics/research metrics has evolved into a broader field of study, many definitions refer to print-based methods of communication and analysis. Research metrics or bibliometrics:

• Are quantitative methods used to measure, track, and analyze print-based scholarly literature (Roemer 2015).
• Is the quantitative analysis of publication data using article-, author-, and journal-level data to determine and to demonstrate research productivity, quality, and impact (Mering 2017).
• Are mathematical formulas that are used to quantify the impact of scientific research based on citation data (Ukidve 2023).
• Is the analysis of published information (e.g., books, journal articles, datasets, blogs) and its related metadata (e.g., abstracts, keywords, citations) using statistics to describe or show relationships between published works (Ninkov 2022, Broadus 1987).

Along with peer review and other measurements, research metrics are often used to evaluate research output and its impact (Cox 2017). To frame bibliometrics in a medical context, “Bibliometrics is to scientific papers as epidemiology is to patients” (Lewiston 1999).

When reviewing research metrics/bibliometrics, it is important to review within applicable context and use responsibly. Differences between disciplines (i.e., biomedical versus humanities) and publishing practices must be considered. The same caveats also apply to abstract and citation databases (i.e. Scopus, Web of Science) and web search engine (i.e., Google Scholar).

Bibliometrics can be organized into the following groups:

• Author level metrics (can be measured by the author's number of published works and the number of times these works have been cited)
• Article level metrics (can be measured by the number of times they are cited by other works)
• Journal level metrics (can be measured by the number of times their articles are cited and where they are cited)
• Institution level metrics

Refer to the tabs on the left to take a deeper dive into a specific research metric.

Broadus, R. N. (1987). Toward a definition of "bibliometrics". Scientometrics, 12(5-6), 373-379. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02016680

Cox, A., Gadd, E., Petersohn, S., & Sbaffi, L. (2019). Competencies for bibliometrics. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 51(3), 746-762. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000617728111

Lewison, G., & Devey, M. E. (1999). Bibliometric methods for the evaluation of arthritis research. Rheumatology (Oxford), 38(1), 13-20. https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/38.1.13

Mering, M. (2017). Bibliometrics: Understanding author-, article- and journal-level metrics. Serials Review, 43(1), 41-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2017.1282288

Ninkov, A., Frank, J. R., & Maggio, L. A. (2022). Bibliometrics: Methods for studying academic publishing. Perspect Med Educ, 11(3), 173-176. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-021-00695-4

Roemer, R. C., & Borchardt, R. (2015). Meaningful metrics: A 21st century librarian’s guide to bibliometrics, altmetrics, and research impact. Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.
Available as an Open Access Publication from ACRL

Ukidve, S., Yadav, R., Manshahia, M.S., Randhawa, J. (2023). Evaluating research impact: A comprehensive overview of metrics and online databases. In: Vasant, P., et al. Intelligent Computing and Optimization. ICO 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 855. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50158-6_24