Build your research profile 

Find out how to manage your research publications and profile as a Swinburne researcher. You will need your Swinburne staff login.

Guidelines on ethical responsibility for managing and disposing of your data

Find out more about how to manage and dispose of your research data in accordance with the guidelines offered by Swinburne’s Research Ethics and Integrity office.

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Citation metrics 

Citation analysis is one indication of research quality, with a range of tools available to help you calculate the number of times research has been cited by other researchers. Citation metrics are not an exact science, so always use citation metrics in conjunction with other measures to assess the impact of the research. 

What to know before you start:  

  • You can use several databases to find the number of citations a publication has received. Choose the one with the most credibility in your field. 
  • Only citations in publications indexed by a particular database will appear in the citation count. Each database can return considerably different citations counts for the same publication. 
  • The format of an author's name may vary so ensure you include all variations in your search, e.g. Smith, J. or Smith, John or Smith, J. J. 
  • Some personal names are very common. Ensure you don't include publications by a different author with the same name. 
  • If your discipline area isn't well covered by Web of Science or Scopus, try using Google Scholar. However, be aware that it is not considered a reliable source of citation data by most disciplines. If you're applying for a grant with a major funder, use Web of Science or Scopus. Check the quality of the journal in Ulrichs web. 


Useful search tools 

Search tool
 Research area Publication types included Coverage

Web of Science 

(Clarivate Analytics)

 Sciences, technology, social sciences, arts and humanities Journals, conference proceedings and books The industry standard in many fields and the source of information for the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). 
Scopus (Elsevier) Physical sciences, health sciences, life sciences, social sciences, business  Journals and conference proceedings  Overlaps with the Web of Science database, but also includes many journals not covered by Web of Science especially in business, accounting, management, and education. Scopus is the source of information for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE). 
Google Scholar Multidisciplinary — better coverage of the arts and humanities than other databases  Journals, conference proceedings, books, PhD theses, preprints, reports and more  Provides a simple way to search broadly for scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources. It includes much the same content as Web of Science and Scopus. It also lists university websites and institutional repositories. 

To find an author's total citations: 

  1. Go to the Web of Science. 
  2. From the Basic search page, Click Researchers 
  3. In the search boxes, enter the author’s last name, first name and middle initial(s). 
  4. Click Find to display the author record. 
     

To find an author's h-index: 

  1. Follow points 1 to 4 to find an author's total citations. 
  2. The author’s h-index will appear in the Citation Network panel. 
     

To find a specific article's citations: 

  1. Go to the Web of Science. 
  2. From the Basic search page, select Cited References 
  3. Enter the author’s name and initials, the Cited Title and cited year/s. Click Search 
  4. Use the checkbox to select the author’s name. Click Finish Search 
  5. You can arrange for Web of Science to send you an email each time that publication is cited (registration required).

To find an author's total citations: 

  1. Go to Scopus (login if you're off campus). 
  2. Click Authors. 
  3. Include an affiliation if known (eg: Swinburne University of Technology). 
  4. Enter the author's last and first name and click Search. 
  5. A list of possible authors will display. Tick the box next to the correct author name(s). 
  6. Click View citation overview. 


To find an author's h-index: 

  1. Follow points 1 to 6 to see an author's citation overview. 
  2. The h-index will display in the top right-hand corner. 

 
To find a specific article's citations: 

  1. Click Documents. 
  2. Enter the title of the individual publication. 
  3. Click Search. 
  4. Choose the correct reference from the results table and click the Cited by number. 
  5. A list of articles that cite the selected publication will display 
  6. You can arrange for Scopus to send you an email each time that publication is cited (registration required).
  1. Go to Google Scholar
  2. Enter the title of the individual publication into the main search box 
  3. When the citation appears, click the Cited by [number] link below the result to view the references that cite the publication. 


Make it easier to track your citations in Google Scholar: 

  1. Create a Google account and an author profile 
  2. Make your profile public so it will appear in the results when your name is searched. 
  3. Select an update option: allow automatic profile updates or  
  4. Ask Google Scholar to alert you when it wishes to add a publication to your profile 


Note: If you select automatic updates, check the accuracy of your publication list regularly. 

Journal Impact Factor 

Journal impact factor is a metric used to indicate the quality of a journal based on the yearly average number of citations to recent articles (from the previous two years) published in that journal. The JIF is available in Journal Citation Reports (JCR). For more information, see Journal Citation Reports: learn the basics.


Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) 

Scimago journal & country rank (SJR) is a metric that calculates journal influence by looking at both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance of the journal where the citation was published. SJR uses data from Scopus and is also available in CiteScore.


Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 

Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) is a metric that measures contextual citation impact by weighing citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field. SNIP uses data from Scopus and is available in CiteScore.


CiteScore 

A metric available in Scopus. CiteScore is the number of citations received by a journal in one year to documents published in the three previous years, divided by the number of documents indexed in Scopus published in those same three years. The CiteScore results table includes SJR and SNIP metrics and journal quartile rankings. For more information about CiteScore, see How metrics works — Scopus.


Altmetrics 

Altmetrics (alternative metrics), is the name given to ‘non-traditional’ metrics such as tweets, mentions, comments, shares or links, saves, downloads, clicks or views. Examples include PlumX article-level metrics available in Scopus and article usage counts in Web of Science. 


Contact 

To get more advice on metrics for your discipline, contact a Liaison Librarian.

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