Veterinary - Scholarly Communications: Measure Impact
Why Is Research Impact Important?
Research impact seeks to quantify the academic, economic, and societal impact of research. Measuring and describing your research impact demonstrates the value of your work as you seek grant funding and apply for promotion or tenure. The information below explains various author impact factor measures and can help you assess the impact of your research.
Types of Author Impact Factors
H-Index "is defined as the highest number of publications of a scientist that received h or more citations each while the other publications have not more than h citations each."1
Calculate H-Index with Google Scholar, or Publish or Perish. Please note H-index calculations may vary between databases.
G-Index "is given by the largest number g of papers which have received at least g citations on average."2
i10 Index
i10 index is a Google Scholar metric that measures a researcher's number of publications with at least 10 citations. This simple measure is only used by Google Scholar and found in Google's My Citations feature.
1Schreiber, M. (2008), An empirical investigation of the g‐index for 26 physicists in comparison with the h‐index, the A‐index, and the R‐index. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 59: 1513-1522. doi:10.1002/asi.20856
2Schreiber, M. (2013), Do we need the g‐index?. J Am Soc Inf Sci Tec, 64: 2396-2399. doi:10.1002/asi.22933
Altmetrics for Research Impact
This open source, web-based tool allows researchers to create a profile (using a Twitter account) to obtain altmetrics for their research.
This free browser bookmark for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari allows you to see online mentions and shares. To view article level metrics, go to a journal article page, then click the Altmetric it! bookmarklet.
This site offers free altmetric data and citation information for publications (information for other content types available with subscription).
Citation Impact
Once you have created a Scholar Profile and claimed your publications within Google Scholar, your profile will automatically calculate both your h-index and i10 index.
This free, downloadable software uses citation data from Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Search to calculate a variety of metrics, including both h-index and g-index.
Scopus Author Profile
Having a Scopus Author ID and profile allow you to quickly see a list of your publications and view your citation metrics such as your H-index and citation counts. To view your Scopus author profile, go to the Scopus database and perform an Author Search of your name and your affiliation. No Scopus author ID or profile will be found unless an author has at least one paper published in Scopus.
The Scopus Author Feedback Wizard can be used to submit requests for corrections, to get citation alerts, to collect all of your Scopus publications in one unique author profile. You will be prompted to create a Scopus user account, or log in if you already have one.
Tips for Improving Your Research Impact
Distinguish Your Name & Use Unique Author Identifiers and Profiles
Use the same version of your name on all publications. Include your middle initial for additional name distinction. Create and maintain unique author scholarly profiles.
Use a Standardized Affiliation
Use "Louisiana State University, School of Veterinary Medicine" as the standard affiliation while at LSU so publications are more easily discoverable.
Open Your Work
- List your publications in LSU's Scholarly Repository.
- Consider publishing in an open access journal.
- Negotiate with your publisher to retain re-use rights.