LibGuides: Citation Analysis & Journal Impact Factor: Article-Level Metrics and Altmetrics

Emerging metrics

For decades, scholars - and those who evaluate them - have had a limited set of options when it comes to metrics to measure the impact of their work. As scholarship has moved deeper into the digital realm, new opportunities to track its reach and utility have been created. New metrics are arising that can tell us something about scholarly works on a much more granular level than ever before. These article level metrics hold the promise to help tell a much richer story about a scholars work than a single measure could ever hope to do.

Public of Library of Science (PLOS)
"Traditionally, the impact of research articles has been measured by the publication journal. But a more informative view is one that examines the overall performance and reach of the articles themselves. Article-Level Metrics are a comprehensive set of impact indicators that enable numerous ways to assess and navigate research most relevant to the field itself."
Watch the video clip to see an example
ImpactStory.
"No one can read everything. We rely on filters to make sense of the scholarly literature, but the narrow, traditional filters are being swamped. However, the growth of new, online scholarly tools allows us to make new filters; these altmetrics reflect the broad, rapid impact of scholarship in this burgeoning ecosystem. We call for more tools and research based on altmetrics."
A sample report image
Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)
"ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-based effort to provide a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers."

Others

Eigenfactor
The citation data used at Eigenfactor come from Thomson Scientific's Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The JCR provides detailed information about the nearly 7,000 journals in the sciences and social sciences which are indexed in Thomson's Web of Science citation database. Journals in the sciences and social sciences. In addition, Eigenfator is able to assign Eigenfactor scores to more than 100,000 reference items that are cited by the JCR-listed journals.
How do I interpret . . .
H-index
The h-index factor is based on the depth of years of your product subscription and your selected timespan. Items that do not appear on the Results page will not be factored into the calculation.
SJR
The SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains

Publications about new metrics

Article-Level Metrics (ALMs): measuring the impact of research
These site includes videos, presentations, and news.
Altmetrics: Value all research products
What a difference a word makes. For all new grant applications from 14 January, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) asks a principal investigator to list his or her research “products” rather than “publications” in the biographical sketch section . . .
The Altmetrics Collection
What paper should I read next? Who should I talk to at a conference? Which research group should get this grant? Researchers and funders alike must make daily judgments on how to best spend their limited time and money–judgments that are becoming increasingly difficult as the volume of scholarly communication increases . . .
Alternative Research Metrics
Most scientific researchers know the agony of waiting to hear about the status of a submitted manuscript. They are eager to change the phrase "manuscript submitted" on a grant application or curriculum vitae to "in press" in advance of some crucial deadline. Publications in prestigious journals—not necessarily the articles themselves but the fact of their existence—are the established and universal, albeit imperfect, way of claiming credit for the scientific work you've done, and there's always a delay . . .