This document provides an overview of bibliometrics and research metrics. It discusses what bibliometrics are and how they can be used to analyze the strengths of research, determine investment opportunities, and identify rising researchers. Common metrics like citation counts, h-index, CiteScore, SNIP, and SJR are explained. The importance of using multiple metrics and qualitative input is stressed. Sources of citation data like Scopus and Web of Science are also summarized.

1. Scopus
Research Metrics and Indicators
Michaela Kurschildgen, Customer Consultant Elsevier
15th July 2019

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What is Bibliometrics?
Bibliometrics are measures of output and indicators of impact.
Probably the simplest bibliometric is a count of publications.
More advanced bibliometrics help you to understand the impact of your academic publications
within the scope of the worldwide research community.

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Analyze the
strengths of
research at the
institution
Determine
where research
is a good
potential
investment
Demonstrate
ROI (Return On
Investment) of
research money
Identify rising
stars amongst
the early career
researchers
Tell a better
narrative about
everything that
is happening
with research
Research Metrics Can Be Used To…

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Why use Bibliometrics?
Your impact at point of publication:
• What are the top journals in your field? Where should you aim to publish?
• Have you been successful in getting your paper into an above average
journal for your research area?
Your impact post publication (otherwise known as citation impact):
• How many times has your paper been cited?
• Has your paper attracted more citations than normal?
• Who is citing your work? Which researchers from which institutions?

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Your impact through knowledge transfer:
• From which subject areas are most of your citations coming?
• Are any research fields outside of your own unexpectedly interested in
your work?
Your impact through collaboration:
• Who do you publish with most? And, who do they publish with most?
• How international is the scope of your collaboration?
• Are you overlooking any potential collaboration opportunities?
Why use Bibliometrics?

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Examples of Metrics we will cover today
Citation Counts / Field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
Author level metrics: H-Index
Journal metrics: CiteScore (&IF), SNIP, SJR
Alternative or complementary metrics
Article level metrics; PlumX
“Quantity” Metrics & “Quality” Metrics
Using metrics responsibly

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Citation databases for Bibliometrics
Scopus and Web of Science.
Google Scholar can be considered the third citation index, but it is not used formally in
bibliometrics for several reasons:
• inaccuracies and redundancy of records
• computer- rather than human-indexing, which results in significant issues
with quality control
• offers no means to normalise bibliometric results to account fairly for
differences in publication year, document type, and subject area.

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Before you start using Bibliometrics
What question are you trying to answer?
What aspect of research performance do you want to explore? Why?
Which metric will help you to answer this question?
Is the metric you are using appropriate?
Can this be measured, and if so how?

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Golden Rules
1. Always use quantitative metric-based input alongside qualitative opinion-based input.
Like all statistics, metrics can be misleading without context. Metrics can be a useful tool, but they are no
replacement for expert opinion.
2. Get the big picture
Each metrics tool takes its data from different sources, and calculates its metrics in different ways. Ensure
that the quantitative metrics part of your assessment always relies on at least two metrics to reduce
bias. Using only a single measure may also encourage people to change their behavior to game that
particular measure.
Adapted from Library Connect.

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Author level metrics

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What is a Profile? A reminder from Scopus
Scopus Profiles are…
• Comprehensive (~ 16 million Author Profiles and ~ 70.000 Affiliation Profiles)
• Easy to integrate (via RSS or the Scopus APIs)
• Widely used (interoperable with ORCID, VIVO)
• Are algorithmically created and can be manually updated and corrected

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Claim your work – consider getting an ORCiD!
155 Patrick Murphy’s in Scopus
78 publish in medical related fields
56 of which are based in the USA
17 of whom have the initials P.J.
This is one of the many challenges……….
1. Get a free ORCiD at https://orcid.org/register (takes 2min)
2. Only have one – its meant to be an unique identifier!
3. Populate your ORCiD with your works
4. Use your ORCiD (not some else’s) when you publish and apply for grants

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• There has been no (and still aren’t) any
universally formal guidelines on author and
affiliation name writing in academic papers
• As a result all A&I database providers have
the same issue:

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What is an ORCID?
ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key
research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your
professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized.
https://orcid.org/

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But…
not only your name is important. Check the best practice for NUI Galway
http://www.nuigalway.ie/institutionalresearchoffice/publishing-guidelines-for-researchers/

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The H-index /Hirsch index or Hirsch number
The H-index is a metric to measure the scientific
productivity and the impact of the published work of a
specific scientist
In other words:
A scholar has an index of 13
if he has published at least 13 papers
each of which has been cited at least 13 times.
Invented by Prof.
Jorge E. Hirsch in
August 2005

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But beware: The number of citations received varies by subject…
…so be very careful when making comparisons!

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Article level metrics

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Alternative Metrics
These metrics seek to capture interactions other people have had with your research via
social media, news, blogs or even readership

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Scopus Metrics: PlumX
In July 2017, PlumX Metrics were integrated on Scopus, providing measurable ways to understand how a
piece of research is being used, interacted with, shared, promoted and cited
Watch the PlumX Metrics Webinar
DOI: 10.1016/j.diabres.2015.11.010

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The Five Categories of Metrics

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Types of Research Output

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PlumX Uses Many IDs to Track Research Output

24. • Visualizes scholarly engagement
• Circles dynamically change size
based on metrics in each category
• Includes 5 categories of metrics
• Designed to communicate
engagement without a score
The Plum Print

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PlumX Metrics on Article Page in Scopus
The Plum Print on a
Scopus Document
Page
Drop down for more
PlumX Metrics using
arrow
Click through for
more metrics

26. PlumX Metrics for all
five categories
Click here for details
about the metrics
An example of
the Plum Print
in Pure
Scopus
page with
more
detailed
metrics

27. An example of
the Plum Print
in Pure
You can
see even
more
details
about the
PlumX
metrics
For example, you
can see all of the
Tweets that
reference this article

28. The Plum Print on a
Scopus Document
Page
Drop down for more
PlumX Metrics using
arrow
Click through for more
metrics

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Scopus Journal Metrics

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Elsevier Research Metrics in Scopus
A comprehensive suite of metrics embedded throughout Scopus is
designed to provide a better view of users research interests.
When used correctly, research metrics together with qualitative input
give a balanced, multi-dimensional view for decision-making
Two Golden Rules for using research metrics
Always use both qualitative
and quantitative input into
your decisions
Always use more than one
research metric as the
quantitative input

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CiteScore™ metrics are the new
standard that help to measure journal
citation impact.
• Comprehensive, Transparent,
Current and free metrics for helping
to analyze where research outputs
are published.
• Calculated using data from Scopus,
CiteScore metrics help validate
citations received by journals and
proceedings, and empower users
with information to make well-
informed decisions regarding
where to publish.
Source-Normalized Impact per Paper
(SNIP)
• Developed by CWTS, University of Leiden
Netherlands.
• Measures contextual citation impact by
weighting citations based on the total
number of citations in a subject field.
• The impact of a single citation is given
higher value in subject areas where
citations are less likely, and vice versa.
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)
• Developed by SCImago, Spain.
• A prestige metric that can be applied to
journals, book series and conference
proceedings.
• With SJR, the subject field, quality and
reputation of the journal have a direct
effect on the value of a citation.
Journal metrics in Scopus
More information: www.elsevier.com/scopus and https://journalmetrics.scopus.com/

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Scenarios for using the Compare Journal tool

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More accuracy, transparency, more metrics

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A note of caution:
▪ Not all journals have an IF, only selected journals by Clarivate Analytics staff for indexing in
Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
▪ In some disciplines, 2 years is not enough time for articles to accrue citations
▪ There is a strong English language and American bias in the journals covered
▪ Interdisciplinary journals are not well represented in the JCR database
▪ Only article, reviews and conference papers are used in the dominator
What is an Impact Factor (IF)
IF 2016 =
Citations received in 2016
Citable items in 2015 & 2014
(article, reviews, conference papers)

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CiteScore is a simple metric for all Scopus journals
B
Note: at launch, all titles in the May 2016 title list, and with some documents indexed in 2016, will have CiteScore metrics
CiteScore 2015 value
B
=
A
Citations in 2015
Documents from 3 years
20122011 2013 2014 2015 2016
A
CiteScore Impact Factor
A = citations to 3 years of documents A = citations to 2 or 5 years of documents
B = all documents indexed in Scopus, same as A B = only citable items (articles, reviews and
conference papers), different from A

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CiteScore Percentile
CiteScore Percentile indicates the relative standing of a serial title in its subject field. A serial that has a
CiteScore Percentile of 96% is ranked according to CiteScore as high or higher than 96% of serial titles in
that category.

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CiteScore Tracker is calculated in the same way as CiteScore, but for the
current year rather than previous, complete years.
The CiteScore Tracker calculation is updated every month, as a current
indication of a title's performance.
CiteScore Tracker

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Differences in citation potential between fields
0
10
20
30
40
50
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0
10
20
30
40
50
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Number of received citations
Referenc
e
lists
%ofpapers
Molecular Biology Mathematics

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0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
Mathematics & Computer Sciences
Social Sciences
Materials Science & Engineering
Biological Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Earth Sciences
Chemistry & Chemical Engineering
Physics
Pharmacology & Toxicology
Clinical Medicine
Neuroscience
Fundamental Life Sciences
Mean Impact Factor
Impact Factors in context: Subject Area

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SNIP: Source-normalized impact per paper
Molecular Cell: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
IPP
Find more information here

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SJR: SCImago Journal Rank

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Advantages of CiteScore metrics
CurrentTransparentComprehensive
Based on Scopus, the
world’s broadest abstract
and citation database
CiteScore metrics will be
available for all serial
titles*, not just journals
CiteScore metrics could be
calculated for portfolios
CiteScore metrics will be
available for free
CiteScore metrics are easy
to calculate for yourself
The underlying database
is available for you to
interrogate
CiteScore Tracker is
updated monthly
New titles will have
CiteScore metrics the year
after they are indexed in
Scopus
*serial titles: Peer review journals, including supplements and special issues; Book series;
Conference proceedings; and Trade journals

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Compare journals

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List of titles
Go to bottom of www.scopus.com and go to
➢ content coverage
➢ Resource Library
➢ Title list
Or use this link

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Fazit
Compare like with like
• Similar research areas
• Stage of academic career
• Similar journals (discipline) for CiteScore & IF
Don’t just use one metric!
• The set of metrics used will not give definitive answers and should not be
used in isolation but should be used together with qualitative measures to
inform decision-making.
.

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Where to find further
information

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Scopus Journal Metrics
Read the CiteScore Tracker & Tricks
Read a case study on CiteScore Metrics
Source Normalized Impact per Paper: Scopus blog

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Scopus News & Updates
Please make sure you register to this monthly newsletter and
stay up-to-date with Scopus

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Find more information on Search
https://blog.scopus.com/posts/6-simple-search-tips-lessons-learned-from-the-scopus-webinar
https://blog.scopus.com/webinars

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Thank you
Elsevier.com/Scopus
Questions?
m.kurschildgen@elsevier.com
Scopus info site: https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus
Scopus blog: http://blog.scopus.com
Webinar series: http://blog.scopus.com/webinars
Twitter: www.twitter.com/scopus
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elsevierscopus
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scopus-an-eye-on-global-research
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScopusDotCom