One way to measure the impact of scholarly research is to use bibliometric analysis, which involves analyzing publication and citation data available in citation databases.
There are a variety of citation/research databases and tools that support citation analysis. The best resources to use depends on the information that you are looking for.
Citation Counts
Counting the number of academic citations that an academic article receives is the most widespread metric for calculating the impact of an article. You can find citation counts in all of the most popular databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions Analytics, and OpenAlex.
H-index is a statistical calculation used to measure the citation impact of a researcher. It is based on the total number of publications and the total number of citations to those works, providing a focused snapshot of research performance. Researcher H-Index can be found in Author Profiles in Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and OpenAlex.
Academic Field Impact
When investigating an article's impact, it’s useful to see the impact of an article within the field or topic in which it was published. You can find the impact that an article has had in its field in Scopus via the Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) metric and in Dimensions Analytics via the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) metric.
Journal Impact
Measuring the impact of a journal can be useful when determining where to publish your work. Journal Impact can be found in Scopus via a journal's CiteScore, Journal Citation Reports in Web of Science, and by searching for Sources in OpenAlex.
Tips to remember about bibliometric analysis:
Citation counts and h-indexes do not provide information about whether a publication is being cited positively or negatively.
An h-index generated by a citation database is limited by the journals and sources that it tracks. It may not have all of a researcher’s publications or track sources in which the publication is cited.
Bibliometric tools are not exhaustive. There may be gaps in the record and some information may need to be manually collected or provided by individuals. This is especially true if the research output is presented orally (e.g. research presentations).
Different databases will have different levels of coverage over time and across subjects.
Web of Science has broad subject coverage from 1900 to the present.
Scopus is focused on the Social Sciences from the 1960s to the present.
Dimensions has broad subject coverage over time and pulls data from sources like preprint repositories and medical databases.
Google Scholar has broad subject coverage and includes many types of published work (including student theses and conference presentations).
