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SciVal: Metrics

What are metrics?

Metrics are quantitative measures commonly used to assess the impact of research. They can provide insight into the influence of journals, individual articles, authors, collaborative networks and institutions. 

Metrics are a measure of attention. Metrics should be used with caution because they can only tell you so much about the quality, success or impact of research and researchers. For example, research may receive negative attention and metrics can be influenced by things like discipline and career stage. It's important to be aware of these limitations. 

It is recommended that you use a combination of metrics (triangulation) to give insight when trying to answer questions about research impact. If multiple metrics reinforce each other then users can be more confident in their conclusions. Ideally combining peer review and expert opinion with metrics is advisable. 

SciVal Metrics

SciVal uses a broad range of metrics and they can be divided into five categories: 

  • Productivity metrics- to measure research productivity
  • Citation impact metrics- to measure the impact of citations
  • Collaboration metrics- to measure the benefits of collaboration
  • Disciplinary metrics- to measure multidisciplinary 
  • Usage metrics- to measure viewing activity

For detailed information on how to use the different modules in SciVal, consult the User Guide. 

Metrics to Consider in SciVal

Scopus author profiles are available for SciVal users to view. An author can view their own profile or can define groups of researchers to view. Based on the researchers selected, publication sets can be viewed. These could be the work of one author, or a selection of publications for example those related to a particular funder.

   Some popular metrics to consider are:

  • Scholarly output: the number of publications

  • Citations per publication: average number of citations received per publication

  • Outputs in the top citation percentiles: Publications that have reached a particular threshold of citations received

  • Outputs in the top journal percentiles: Publications that have been published in the world's top journals

  • Field-weighted citation impact: The ratio of citations received relative to the expected world average for the subject field, publication type and publication year

  • Collaboration impact: The average number of citations received by publications that have international, national or institutional co-authorship 

  • H-index: A measure of both the productivity and publication impact

SciVal Metrics Guidebook