Sources of metrics
Numerous sources of academic metrics are available. Which you should use will depend on your discipline and the question you're trying to answer, but we've presented a summary of the databases we use most often below.
Internal databases
myPublications is the University's research information management system. myPublications allows researchers to curate their publications profile from automatic searches of a range of sources including Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed, as well as from manual entries and uploads for outputs not covered by these databases.
This is the most comprehensive source of information about researchers at the university, provided that they have kept their profiles up to date.
External databases
Subscription abstract and citation databases
The University subscribes to Elsevier's Scopus and Digital Science's Dimensions.
These databases contain citation data from thousands of peer-reviewed sources. As the coverage of each database is different, citation counts (and any metrics based on this data) will differ depending on the database used as the source.
Databases sometimes attribute publications to authors incorrectly, although you can usually request an edit if you notice a mistake. It is worth checking publication numbers for database author profiles against a human-curated source, such as myPublications or a researcher's webpage if their profiles are not linked to ORCID.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar uses web-based sources to track publications and citations. The criteria for what is included in the database are less transparent than the subscription databases. As well as articles from peer-reviewed sources, Google Scholar includes many pre-prints and publications in institutional repositories.
It also includes citations from non-peer-reviewed sources such as working papers, student handbooks and reading lists. This means that metrics sourced from Google Scholar are typically higher than the equivalents from Scopus of Web of Science.
Google Scholar's database has less human curation than Scopus, Web of Science or Dimensions and there can be quality issues with some of the data - for example, duplicate copies of publications can result in multiple entries in the database for the same publication and citations from some less-than-reputable sources can be included.
As a result, it's easier to game Google Scholar than the subscription databases, so it's worth treating metrics from Google Scholar with a critical mind.
News and social media mentions
We subscribe to Altmetric Explorer, which tracks various online sources including online news, blogs, social media and policy documents for mentions of academic publications. It produces a single Altmetric score for each publication, but also allows a researcher to drill down to discover how and where their outputs have been mentioned.
This complements more traditional bibliometrics:
- Altmetric scores can capture the attention your publications are receiving much sooner than academic citations.
- Altmetric scores show the attention received by your publications outside of academia, whereas academic citations generally come from within academia.
- Coverage of policy documents and news media can be used to demonstrate where your publications have produced real-world impact.
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