School of Business and Management

SBM Research Metrics Toolkit

Understand, measure, and showcase your research impact.

The SBM Research Metrics Toolkit provides guidance on key research indicators used across academia for evaluating individual researchers, publications, journals, and research outputs. These metrics are useful for supporting academic promotions, funding applications, performance reviews, and strategic publishing decisions.

h-index

Definition:
The h-index is a combined measure of productivity (number of papers) and impact (citations). A researcher has an h-index of h if h of their papers have been cited at least h times each.

Why use it?

  • Highlights both output and influence.
  • A widely accepted metric for academic evaluations and grant applications.

Example:
An h-index of 15 means 15 of your papers have at least 15 citations each.

Use Cases:

  • Promotion dossiers
  • Benchmarking against peers (within the same field)
  • Job applications

Limitations:

  • Cannot be used to compare across disciplines.
  • Favors long publishing careers.

Tools:
Scopus | Web of Science | Google Scholar

Author Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)

Definition:
FWCI compares the total citations received by your work against the expected global average in your subject area, accounting for document type and year.

Why use it?

  • Normalizes citation performance by discipline.
  • Useful for comparing authors, departments, or institutions.

Interpretation:

  • FWCI = 1.0 → citations are as expected.
  • FWCI > 1.0 → above-average performance.
  • FWCI < 1.0 → below-average performance.

Use Cases:

  • Cross-institutional comparisons
  • Demonstrating influence in grant proposals
  • Showcasing normalized research impact

Tools:
SciVal (Elsevier) | InCites (Clarivate Analytics)

Author Citation Count

Definition:
Total number of citations your published work has received.

Why use it?

  • Quick snapshot of how often your work is referenced.
  • Can indicate overall influence and readership.

Limitations:

  • Sensitive to self-citations.
  • Does not account for discipline size or age of publications.

Tools:
Scopus | Web of Science | Google Scholar

Article Field-Weighted Citation Impact (Article FWCI)

Definition:
This metric compares the number of citations an individual article receives against similar articles (same year, document type, field).

Why use it?

  • Ideal for showing the relative impact of a single paper.
  • Particularly useful for recent publications that outperform others in the field.

Use Cases:

  • Highlighting standout articles in your portfolio
  • Demonstrating research excellence for grant applications

Tools:
Scopus | SciVal

Article Citation Counts

Definition:
Total number of citations received by a specific article.

Why use it?

  • Reflects usage and influence of individual publications.
  • Useful for measuring reach in targeted areas of research.

Limitations:

  • Takes time to accumulate citations (not ideal for newly published work).
  • May be skewed in high-citation disciplines.

Tools:
Scopus | Web of Science | Google Scholar

Article Citation Percentiles / Top Percentile Papers

Definition:
Indicates whether an article falls within the top 1%, 5%, or 10% most cited articles globally within its field and publication year.

Why use it?

  • Strong evidence of excellence and influence.
  • Highly regarded in academic evaluations and funding reviews.

Tools:
SciVal |  InCites | Scopus

Publications in Top Journal Percentiles

Definition:
Measures the percentage (or number) of your papers published in journals ranked in the top 10% globally based on metrics like CiteScore, SNIP, or SJR.

Why use it?

  • Demonstrates publishing in high-quality journals.
  • Highlights strategic publishing choices.

Use Cases:

  • Faculty promotion applications
  • Research portfolio summaries
  • School rankings and benchmarking

Tools:
SciVal | Scopus Journal Rankings

Journal Impact Metrics

Common Journal Metrics Include:

  • Journal Impact Factor (JIF) – based on average citations per article over 2 years (Clarivate)
  • SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) – considers both citation quantity and source prestige (Elsevier)
  • CiteScore – calculates citations per document over 4 years (Scopus)

Why use them?

  • Evaluate where to publish
  • Showcase journal quality when listing your publications

Limitations:

  • Journal-level, not article-specific
  • Differences in calculation methods across tools

Tools:
-Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate)
-SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)
–Scopus Sources

Book & Book Chapter Metrics

Definition:
Metrics for books include citation counts, library holdings, and reviews.

Why use it?

  • Books and chapters play a major role in business, law, and interdisciplinary research.

Limitations:

  • Many book citations are not indexed in Scopus or Web of Science.

Tools:
-Book Citation Index (Web of Science)
-Scopus (limited book series)
-Google Scholar

Conference Paper Citation Counts

Definition:
Measures how many times your conference papers have been cited.

Why use it?

  • Especially relevant in fields with early-stage or applied research (e.g., information systems, economics).

Limitations:

  • Not all proceedings are indexed; citations may take longer.

Tools:
Scopus | Web of Science | Google Scholar