Skip to Main Content

Research Impact for STEMM - a self-help guide

This guide will assist researchers in the STEMM disciplines to find bibliometrics to demonstrate the impact of their research outputs.

Author MetricsInfographic titled "What metrics do I need?" showing five types of research impact metrics with icons and examples.

 

 

Article Metrics Journal Metrics Alternative Metrics Benchmarking Researcher at Library

This infographic is designed to help researchers identify different types of metrics to demonstrate research impact and engagement. It is divided into five sections:

  1. Author Metrics – h-index, h5-index, Author Ranking, and Field-Weighted Citation Impact (all articles). Icon: person.
  2. Article Metrics – Citation Count, Article Ranking, Altmetrics, and Field-Weighted Citation Impact (single article). Icon: document.
  3. Journal Metrics – Journal Impact Factor (JIF), CiteScore, SJR, SNIP, and Top Journal Percentile. Icon: open book.
  4. Alternative Metrics – Social Media Activity, Downloads/Views, News Media Mentions, and Government Policy Mentions. Icons: Facebook and Twitter logos.
  5. Benchmarking – Field of Research comparisons (Researchers, Nationally/Globally) and Institutional Benchmarking. Icon: two people.

The infographic is branded with The University of Melbourne logo in the bottom right corner.

Introduction

As researchers and academic staff, you need to demonstrate the impact of your research outputs in applications for academic promotions, grant applications and in many other contexts.  

The selection of the most appropriate metrics and/or the optimum method of presenting those metrics is dependent on the discipline, the purpose, the context and the specific research being evaluated.

Library staff strongly advise that you fully understand the requirements of the grant, promotion or application. 


The use of metrics to demonstrate research impact or to compare researchers or research publications is a topic that has been debated in recent years.  The following websites and articles are recommended for further information and discussion:

Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics

San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)


Please consult the following resources when deciding which metrics are appropriate and how to use those metrics to demonstrate research impact and engagement:

Australian Research Council Grants

National Health and Medical Research Council

Academic Careers @ Melbourne

 


 

 


Library Instagram

Library Blogs

Library Contacts