RILAS Masterguide

Books and book chapter metrics can assist in measuring the reach and impact of scholarly publishing. They can be more difficult to find than article and/or journal metrics, as Scopus and Web of Science are not comprehensive in their coverage and don't consistently index book chapters.

Book reviews can provide evidence of the esteem in which your publication is held by others in the discipline area. Library holdings may give an indication of the reach of your publication, and demonstrate that it is considered useful for teaching and research purposes.

These metrics may be useful for promotion, employment and grant applications.

For citations

Book Citation Index (Web of Science)

• Search for the title of your book - view citations
• If you need to, use to Web of Science Categories menu on the left hand side of the screen to narrow your results just to book reviews. Note the number of reviews, journal/s in which the reviews were published

Google Scholar

• Search for the book or book chapter title - you can include the phrase "book review" in your search - the citations will be listed

Book Review Index Online

• Note the journal in which the review was published, number of reviews etc.

For library holdings

Trove

• Australian library holdings

Worldcat

• Holdings in libraries worldwide
• TIP: type "all" in the "Enter your location" box to see worldwide holdings of the book in question

COPAC

• Holdings in libraries in the UK and Ireland

The European Library

Other measures of impact you could consider

• Listing on university or school reading lists
• ‘Best seller’ lists
• Awards received
• Prestige of the publisher
• Editions
• Translations
• Publisher-supplied information (e.g. sales statistics)