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One way authors can measure research impact is through the h-index. This metric combines measures of productivity with measures of impact and is designed to reflect research quality over time. It is defined as follows: "a researcher has an h-index if they have at least h publications for which they have received at least h citations." For example, if a researcher has an h-index of 12, they have 12 publications that have received at least 12 citations over time. Authors can find their h-index via Web of Science or Google Scholar.
On the main page of the Web of Science database, select the Reseachers tab. Enter the first and last name of the researcher. You may also search by affiliated organizations or by researcher ID (e.g., ORCID ID, Web of Science ResearcherID).
On the right side of the author's profile page, you will find the Metrics information, which contains the author's H-index.
Researchers can also use Google Scholar to locate their author H-index. You can search for individual author pages by using the Profiles search box:
Each researcher profile will contain a list of citations and links to each article, as well as a list of co-authors, in addition to author metrics, including the author H-index.
Four simple yet useful metrics for determining author impact are number of co-authors, number of citing authors, times cited, and author position analysis.
Author profiles in Semantic Scholar provide information about both co-authors and citing authors.
After searching by author in Semantic Scholar, click on the author profile to access researcher metrics. Click on any of the blue highlighted numbers displayed above the author's list of citations.
The list of co-authors is arranged in descending order by most to least amount of co-authored articles and provides author metrics for each of the co-authors (e.g., # of publications, h-index, and # of citations).
The list of citing authors is arranged similarly to the list of co-authors. Authors who have cited the researcher of interest the most times are listed first, with the other citing authors listed in descending order.
Author metrics in Web of Science provide the sum of times cited as well as a link to all citing articles.
Author position in Web of Science displays the percentage of times the author was first author, last author, and corresponding author. (i.e., the reprint author on a paper). This information can be found in the right sidebar of the author profile in Web of Science.
There are several ways that researchers can expand their impact beyond traditional metrics. These include establishing and cultivating an online identity, registering for researcher IDs and profiles, participating in researcher networks, and taking steps to increase your altmetric score. The resources below will assist you in each of these areas.