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Sharing Your Research

The guide is to educate graduate students and early career research on publishing, copyright, and impact metrics.

Measuring Impact

Impact is talked about in research - but what is it? How do you measure it?

Impact for research publications is typically measured by citations. There are three common ways to measure research impact:

  • Impact Factor
  • h-index
  • altmetrics

Impact Factor

Have you been told that you should aim to publish in a "high impact" journal? That means you should be seeking a journal with a high Impact Factor.

The Impact Factor is the average number of times an article in a particular journal is cited. This is a journal-level metric and does not actually reflect your impact as an author.

h-index

The h-index also known as the Hirsch-index is a author-level metric based on the number of citations you have. It attempts to measure productivity and impact on a scholar's publications. 

It is not merely an average of your article citations. For example, an author with an h-index of 20 will have written 20 papers that have each had at least 20 citations. 

Altmetrics

Altmetrics are indicators to research impact. They track attention to reach outputs in non-traditional sources, such as policy documents, news, blogs, and social media. Altmetrics can help you understand how research is being received and used.

Altmetrics are a great complementary to traditional citation based metrics in order for you to gain a fuller picture of your research impact.

image from Altmetric

Helpful Tip: Get the Altmetric bookmarklet!

Helpful Tip: Have an ImpactStory profile!



ImpactStory showcases how your research is impactful with achievements, activity, and publications -- and includes altmetrics.

​ImpactStory uses your ORCiD profile to automatically populate the ImpactStory profile. This can be a great profile for students and early career researchers to have. 

 

Helpful Tip: Get an ORCiD

ORCiD (Open Research and Contributor ID) is a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher.