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Research impact for Education: a self-help guide

What to benchmark?

Before you start with benchmarking, get more clarity about what you need to answer. Consider other factors, beyond performance, that can influence the data or the metrics. These types of factors could include size (small sample may skew results), discipline differences, publication-type differences, data coverage issues, time-frame issues, manipulation (gaming) issues. 
NOTE: Benchmarking using Google Scholar data is not practically feasible because the accuracy of data for multiple researchers cannot be controlled.
  • Comparisons between two or more of any of these entities:
    • Countries or Regions
    • Groups or Research Centers
    • Researchers
    • Topics or Research Areas
    • Publication sets.
  • Comparisons based on various indicators such as
    • Scholarly output
    • Citation count
    • FWCI
    • Publications in Journal Quartiles
    • Number of citing countries
    • Media impact
    • Prominence percentiles
    • Academic-corporate collaboration
  • Comparisons over a specific time-frame (e.g., most recent complete 10-years, 5-years, etc.)
  • Comparisons based on a common data-set or source (e.g., using SciVal, Incites, or Dimensions)
  • Two industry-standard benchmarking tools are SciVal (Scopus data) and InCites (Web of Science core data )

Access SciVal

SciVal is a research performance assessment tool linked to the Scopus (Elsevier) data.

Individual registration is required to use this database. Choose Sign in via your Institution Please use your @student.unimelb.edu.au or @unimelb.edu.au email address to register.

University of Melbourne staff and students gets access to the three modules we subscribe to: Overview, Benchmarking and Collaboration.

 

Access SciVal

SciVal Overview

Use the SciVal Overview module to quickly attain at-a-glance, standardized Reports.

1 Navigate to 'Overview' so you can get a quick overview for the research performance of entities such as countries, institutions, researchers or research groups.
2 Pick the entities for your Overview report from the left expandable panel for Institutions, Researchers, Publication sets, Countries, Topics, Research Areas, or Scopus sources.
3 Pick the time-range for your report.
4 Select the relevant subject area scheme (FOR or ASJC is the most common) and subject area.
5 Select the theme tab that will help you display the data most useful to help inform you.

What's new in Scival?

SciVal Researcher Overview

I want to use SciVal (Elsevier) Overview Module to find a summary of my research performance. How can I do that?

1. SciVal (Elsevier) will be used to collect evidence. Individual registration is required to use SciVal the first time.
2. Choose 'Sign in via your institution'. You have to use your @student.unimelb.edu.au OR @unimelb.edu.au email address to register.
 

Step1: Sign in to SciVal

 

  • SciVal has separate modules useful for different tasks, e.g., Overview, Benchmarking, Collaboration, Reporting, etc.
  • In this sequence of steps we will be using the Overview module
  • SciVal has auto-generated a form at the bottom of the current screen (based on your login credentials) to help you 'Find my profile'
  • We suggest you click 'Find my profile' at the bottom of the screen
  • The following screen is the 'Define a new researcher' screen

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Step 2: Find the profile for a researcher - Overview (Module)

 

  • In 'Overview' you can get a summary of the performance of Institutions, Researchers, Countries, Research areas, etc.
  • After going to Overview, you need to select one of the buttons on the left collapsible navigation bar (there are 7 buttons in total)
  • Select the button for researchers (2nd button), then click the 'Add new' button at the bottom of the panel
  • From the options click 'Define a new researcher' and use the widget to define (locate the correct profile)
  • Type in the Last name and the First name (don't complete affiliation) and then click 'Search'
  • You may be presented with more than one possible match based on variations of initials/first names, affiliations, etc.
  • If you have viewed the publications (hyperlinked) and you are sure that multiple profiles are yours - you could tick multiple boxes
  • Once the boxes are clicked, the next action is to click 'Directly go to Save Researcher'
  • Be careful and do not select multiple boxes if you are not looking at your own profile
  • Once multiple boxes are selected Scopus/SciVal will go ahead to merge the profiles

 

Click to view image

Step 3: View + navigate SciVal Researcher Overview

 

  • The SciVal Overview module provides a summary typically over a shorter time-span such as 5 years
  • Drop-down menus are provided to change the focus years, subject categories (FOR, ASJC, QS or THE), Subject areas (all or specified)
  • The summary tap provides metrics for total Scopus scholarly outputs for the selected period, FWCI, Citation count, Citations per publicaton, H-index and h5-index

Click to view larger image

SciVal Benchmarking

Use the SciVal Benchmarking module to compare two or more entities.

1 Navigate to 'Benchmarking' so you can compare the research performance of more than one entity such as countries, institutions, researchers or research groups.
2 Pick the entities for your Benchmark report from the left expandable panel for Institutions, Researchers, Publication sets, Countries, Topics, Research Areas, or Scopus sources.
3 Pick the time-range for your report.
4 Select the relevant subject area scheme (FOR or ASJC is the most common) and subject area.
5 Select the best combination of metrics for your report on the y-axis, the x-axis and additional metrics (bubble size)

 

Access Incites

InCites is a research performance assessment tool linked to the Web of Science (Incites) data. The Web of Science Core Collection dataset is used in InCites benchmarking and analysis.

Individual registration is required to use this database. You can use your existing Web of Science login credentials to sign in to InCites, or follow the link on the sign in page to Register.

University of Melbourne staff and students gets access to InCites.

 

Access InCites Benchmarking and Analytics

InCites Analyze

From the landing page, start from scratch to search for data to provide insights on one or more of:

  1. Researchers
  2. Institutions
  3. Locations
  4. Research areas
  5. Publication sources
  6. Funding agencies

There are also some ready-to-use guided analyses to help you find ways of looking at the data for insights on topics such as

  • 'impactful citation topics for an organisation'
  • citation topics of a journal
  • top institutions in a research area
  • funding agencies for a research area, etc.

1 Scope to the kind of analyses needing to be done: Researcher, Organisation, Research area, etc.
2 Add filters from the left panel to help scoping and specification of research parameters.
3 Select dataset and publication date range for the analyses.
4 Add indicators useful for comparing entities such as researchers, organisations and research areas. The Incites Indicator Handbook provides detailed information.
5 Add baselines if required. Baselines help you see how the information for the performance indicators selected compares against calculated totals.
6. Toggle tabular and visualised data. Pick from a list of visualisation options, customise and add to reports and dashboards.
7. Download the data to CSV.
8. Toggle to the Report and Organise capability within InCites to help embed the data in reports, organise for future use and share with other stakeholders.

 


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