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Measuring Research Impact in the Sciences

An overview of tools for measuring journal and author metrics

Measuring your Impact as an Author

Researchers are frequently asked to demonstrate the impact of their work. Traditionally, this has meant providing the number publications, and the number of citations that those publications have received. This has historically been expressed as an author's H-Index, so named for its creator, J.E. Hirsch. 

The H-Index

  • The number of papers (h) that have received h or more citations. 
    • An h-index of 10 means that an author has 10 articles that have each received 10 or more citations
  • Measure of the cumulative impact of a researcher's publications
  • Attempt to measure quantity (number of publications) and quality (number of citations received)
  • Find in Web of Science or Google Scholar

 

Citation Reports

Multiple databases and programs allow an author to collect a list of their publications indexed in the database and the citations made to those publications automatically. At SDSU, you can create these citation reports through Web of Science, Google Scholar, or the Publish or Perish software.

Create an Author Profile in Google Scholar

  • Google Scholar Citations
  • On the page that opens, click the Get started with Google Scholar Citations button.
  • Sign-in with your Google username and password, and fill-in the requested information to complete your profile.
  • You can save your publications and view:
    • Number of citations
    • H-Index
    • The i10-index (number of publications with at least 10 citations)