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Tracking Your Scholarly Research Impact

Learn how to measure the impact of your research

What are Article-Level Metrics?

Article-level metrics (ALMs) attempt to quantify the reach and impact of a single research publication. ALMs provide a snapshot of how an individual article is being discussed, shared, and used.

Citation counts are a commonly used article-level metric.

Where do I find Article-Level Metrics?

​​​​​​Tools for citation counts (number of times your article has been cited by other scholars):

  • Google Scholar to see who your article has been "Cited By"

  • Note: there are other institutional subscription-based databases and membership-based organizations that also offer citation metrics (e.g. Scopus, Web of Science)

Other article-level metric tools:

  • Usage metrics (number of article views or downloads) - Many journals collect usage metrics for articles, such as number of views and number of downloads. Whether or not ALMs are available for a particular article will depend on the platform or publisher--check the website of the journal that your article is published in.
  • Field normalized citation metrics are used to contextualize the citation rate of an article to the expected citation rate of other articles in the same field, publication type, and publication year. Two common field normalized citation metrics types include the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) from iCite and Field Weighted Citation Impact from Scopus (only available through an institutional subscription).