The ability to assess the impact of research publications is a growing area of importance with applications in securing funding and career development.

Bibliometrics provides a quantitative analysis of the influence of research. It looks at the citation counts for articles to see how they have impacted on the research landscape and with the introduction of altmetrics looks at how the influence of the article can be measured. It stands alongside qualitative measures of excellence such as peer review.

Available metrics include:

Authors and Institutions

Citation counts, publication counts, h-index

Articles

Citation counts, Facebook/Twitter mentions

Journals

Journal impact factor, CiteScore, SCImago journal rank, Eigenfactor

Subjects

Highly-cited papers, hot papers, journal impact factor

This LibGuide highlights some of the tools available to researchers at the University of Hull.

It is worth noting that citation measures are most developed for research in the sciences and social sciences. The arts and humanities, due to disciplinary differences, have less tools available for such analysis. It is also difficult to compare impact factors of journals in different discipline areas as citation practices vary between disciplines.

The University of Hull has published a Statement on the Use of Metrics in the Assessment of Research (2020).

Some key points:

• Decision-making must never be based entirely on quantitative measures, and should always support and not supplant expert peer assessment.
• The University’s use of metrics will be based upon the Leiden Manifesto (2015), and informed by The Metric Tide (Research England, 2014) and UK Progress Towards the Use of Metrics Responsibly (2018).
• Data being collected or acquired to provide the basis for metrics should be open and transparent so all those involved can understand what the data is and how and why it will be used.
• Metrics that provide excessive detail in their precision should also be avoided so metrics are not used simply for the sake of measuring.
• The metrics identified will benefit from regular scrutiny to ensure they continue to be fit for purpose over time, and changed if they are not.
• Faculties and Institutes are invited to use this document to inform the development of their own metrics toolset.
• A decision on whether to sign the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment or not is delegated to those disciplines that can best utilise DORA as part of their metrics toolset.

• Support from the University Library for sourcing and interpreting bibliometric data:  rdm@hull.ac.uk
  • Kirstyn Radford, Research Outputs Specialist, and Chris Awre, Head of Information Services

• Guidance on the University's position on the use of bibliometrics for research evaluation is provided by the Research and Innovation Office.