After research has been published, there are different ways of assessing its impact. Impact is often measured by citation data, but can also include social media mentions, public engagement, and use of research in policy-making, education, and business. Impact is one of many factors considered in the REF when assessing the quality of research outputs.
Bibliometrics is a way of measuring research impact using quantitative citation data. This can include:
Citation data is only one way to measure the impact of research and the fact that a publication receives citations is not always an indicator of quality. Controversial papers may be cited a lot and other factors such as self-citation, co-authoring, and the length of a researcher’s career can all influence the citation of their work. There are also significant differences in citation trends across subject areas.
Altmetrics measures the number of times that a piece of research is mentioned on social media (e.g. tweets or blog posts). This is more immediate than traditional bibliometrics, but the academic quality of social media mentions should also be taken into consideration. The Scopus database provides altmetrics information for articles where available.
There are a number of ways to increase the impact of your research publications: