This document discusses citation analysis and metrics for measuring research impact, including citation count, h-index, and altmetrics. It explains that citation analysis tools measure how often a researcher's published work has been cited by others, and that citation count and h-index are commonly used metrics. However, it notes limitations in relying on any single tool or metric and cautions that interpretation depends on factors like discipline and time publishing. The document encourages researchers to use multiple tools and social media to increase their visibility and influence.

1. latrobe.edu.au
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My Research Impact:
What, why and how?
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2. What is it?
• Citation analysis is a widely accepted measure of the impact or
influence of your research
• It is based on the concept that the number of times you get cited
is meaningful – the more citations, the greater the relevance
• Citation analysis tools measure the number of times your
published research has been cited by other researchers (the
‘citation count’)
• It is important to be aware of the scope of all citation tools
because no one tool measures all publications
• Traditional publishing and your research impact can be
enhanced by altmetrics and social media
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3. Citation Count
• Provides the number of times your publications have
been cited
• The amount of citations to a paper may not be a
reflection of the paper’s quality
• Self-citations can distort the citation count results
• Metrics are not as well established in some disciplines
such as arts, humanities, social sciences & business
• The calculation also depends on the tool used
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4. h - index
• Used to qualify the impact and quantity of your research
output
• h-index is the number of papers that have been cited at
least h times
– ie. an h-index of 20 tells us that the author has
published 20 papers that have been cited at least 20
times
• Your h-index will depend on the length of time you have
been publishing and on the tool used
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5. Why use it?
• Measure your personal research effectiveness
• Grant applications
• Promotion & recruitment
• Benchmarking
• Performance evaluation
• Identify potential collaborators
• Identify emerging areas of research
Image: futureatlas.com/wikimedia commons
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6. How to get started?
• Tools & metrics vary between disciplines
• Be aware of the limitations of each tool and the data sources
from which the metrics are retrieved.
• Accurate metrics require the tool to index the author’s
publication titles as well as the cited publication titles
• No single tool is comprehensive
• Note: negative citations are counted as valid
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7. Main points to remember
• Don’t rely on one single tool.
• Investigate each tool to see what suits your research
profile
• Some disciplines rely less on publishing in academic
journals
• Use a combination of metrics with other qualitative
information
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8. Other ways to increase your influence: get your
profile out there!
• Consider using multiple tools and social media: get your profile out there!
• Use Research Online: LTU repository (add publications and data)
• Research Gate, LinkedIn, SSRN, REPEC (Ideas)
• Social media
• Check out the competition: are they using these networking tools or social
media?
• Do some research or ask your librarian: some tools are discipline specific
(SSRN: Social Sciences Researchers Network)
• Discuss with your supervisor or colleagues and friends about which tools and
social media they are using
• Write a social media plan;
• Contribute to the repository and tweet the permalink or add the permalink on
ResearchGate
• Register for ORCID and ResearcherID
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9. Help
• View the Citation Analysis LibGuide for further
information and instructions on how to use the various
tools
• Contact your Senior Research Advisor
Attribution: MyRI: My Research Impact (An Open Access toolkit to support bibliometrics training & awareness).
Image: impact / impakt/n. bySickMouthy
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