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Publishing

Support for academic authors in making informed, ethical, and strategic publishing decisions.

Measuring Research Impact

An icon of a magnifying glass hovering over a chart on a piece of paper

Research impact measures encompass a range of quantitative and qualitative indicators that show how scholarship is used, cited, and discussed within and beyond academia.

  • Journal-level measures, such as the Journal Impact Factor and related citation-based indicators, attempt to reflect the influence and prestige of a publication outlet.
  • Author-level metrics are intended to track an individual’s scholarly output and influence over time, often over the course of someone's career.
  • Alternative metrics, or Altmetrics, aim to quantify the level of public engagement with a publication on the open web. These are particularly useful for scholars engaged in Open Science and Open Access publishing. 

These datapoints offer a myriad of perspectives and, taken together, paint a picture of the relative influence, visibility, and reach of our scholarly contributions.

Journal Metrics

Journal-level metrics, often called Bibliometrics, are quantitative strategies for analyzing and tracking the impact of electronic and print-based publications. Below are common bibliometrics for journals. Bibliometrics can also be applied to books, conference proceedings, and datasets.

Metric*  Definition Formula Example
Times Cited  Total number of times a publication or journal has been cited by other works.  A simple count of citations A paper cited 150 times has Times Cited = 150
Impact Factor (IF)  Average number of citations received per paper published in a journal during the preceding two years.  IF = Citations in Year X to articles from (X-1, X-2) / Number of articles published in (X-1, X-2)  IF = 500 citations / 100 articles = 5.0 
Immediacy Index  Average number of times an article is cited in the same year it is published.  Immediacy Index = Citations in Year X to articles published in Year X / Number of articles published in Year X  20 citations / 40 articles = 0.5 
Cited Half-Life  Median age of articles cited in a journal during a particular year.  In year X, list all citations to articles published in earlier years. Find the year Y where the cumulative citations reach 50% of the total. Subtract Y rom X.  Half-life of 5 means half of citations are to articles ≥5 years old 
CiteScore Average number of citations a journal receives per published article over a four-year period.   Average citations in year X to articles published in X–1 to X–4, then divided by the number of articles published in those same four years. A journal with 400 articles from 2020–2023 and 1,200 citations in 2024 has a CiteScore of 3.0.

*To be clear, these measures are used to compare journal prestige, not to assess the quality of individual articles. 

 

Journal Ranking

Journal ranking is a way of comparing the influence of academic journals in a given field, based on the type of citation metrics shown here. A highly ranked journal can indicate greater than average visibility and citation rates.

However, journal rankings can be dramatically different across disciplines and should NOT be the sole determinant in where you publish. It's important to look at multiple quality indicators before choosing a journal outlet for your scholarship. 

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) wordmark logo

Scopus/SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) is a publicly available journal ranking system that uses data from Scopus along with a unique prestige/citation calculator to rank journals across globe from a variety of fields. 

Author Impact Measures

A chart representing h-index using number of citation and publication rankTo track a individual scholar's influence in their field over time, we typically use a citation analysis measure called the h-index. 

The h-index is a metric that aims to measure both the productivity and impact of a author's published work over time. It is defined as the highest number (h) such that the author has h papers that have each been cited at least h times.

For example, if a researcher has an h-index of 17, it means they have published 17 papers, and each of those papers has been cited at least 17 times by other researchers. If their 18th most-cited paper has only 10 citations, the h-index remains at 17. But if that 18th paper reaches 18 citations, the h-index increases to 18. There are also variations of h-index calculations. See definitions and examples below. 

Measuring Impact

Metric Definition Formula Example

H-Index 

Measures the productivity and citation impact of a researcher. 

H = h papers with ≥ h citations 

H = 25 means 25 papers with ≥25 citations 

H5-Index 

h-index for articles published in the last 5 years. 

H5 = h articles with ≥ h citations in last 5 years 

H5 = 20 means 20 articles with ≥20 citations 

H5-Median 

Median number of citations for articles in the H5-index set. 

Median citations of the h articles counted in H5

If H5 articles have median of 30 citations, H5-Median = 30 

Find Your h-index

Please note: Different tools may give you different h-index values because each tool calculates the value based on only the data it can find.

Altmetrics

Altmetrics, or alternative metrics, are a set of impact measure derived from online interactions with scholarly content, including but not limited to document views, downloads, social media mentions, blog posts, and news coverage. 

Many authors use Altmetrics as a way to highlight their scholarship's impact beyond the ivory tower and and indicate the level of public attention and reach of their online research. They can also be powerful allies in the promotion and tenure process, enriching your narrative of scholarly impact, as discussed in The Use of Altmetrics in Promotion and Tenure on Educause Review.

Category Definition Examples
Usage Metrics Measures how often research outputs are accessed or used. Clicks, Views, Downloads, Sales, Library Holdings
Capture Metrics Indicates interest or intent to revisit or reuse content. Bookmarks (e.g., Mendeley), Forks (e.g., GitHub), Favorites, Saves, Readers
Mentions & Social Media Metrics Qualitative engagement with research in online platforms, tracks attention and engagement on social platforms. Blog Posts, Comments, Reviews, Wikipedia Attributions, Likes, Shares, Tweets, Retweets, Facebook Posts
Scores and Rankings Aggregated scores reflecting overall online attention. PlumX Metrics and Altmetric.com

PlumX Metrics through Rollins Scholarship Online 

PlumX wordmark logoRollins authors have access to PlumX Metrics, which tracks how research outputs are used and discussed across five categories (usage, captures, mentions, social media, and citations). 

Shown in a color-coded “sunburst” impact visualization, this data can be pulled from multiple sources, including library repositories, publisher platforms, and citation databases.

For questions on accessing PlumX metrics through RSO, please contact Rachel Walton at rwalton@rollins.edu.

Alternative Metrics: Tools

Additional Reading

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