Journal & Author Impact Metrics | University of Texas Libraries

What it is: The highest number of articles from a
journal or an author that have been cited at least that many times. An
h-index of 25 means that 25 articles have been cited a minimum of 25
times. An h5-index calculates only the last 5 complete years of
publication.


This is the most customizable metric for assessing the impact of
journals in the field of education, and an h-index can be calculated for
any journal (unlike JIF and SJR metrics which only track certain
titles).  In general, Google Scholar does a much better job of
tracking education journals than Web of Science (Journal Citation
Reports) and Scopus (SciMago).  It also includes citations from
conference papers, books, dissertations and more.  This explains why the
h-indexes calculated by Google Scholar are often much higher.


Where to find it: 


Google Metrics Displays h-indexes (based on citations in Google Scholar) for the top journals in each subdiscipline.  Start by following the "top 100 publications"
link.  Choose "Social Sciences" along the left and then the appropriate
sub-category.  If a journal isn't listed in these categories, there
isn't a way to access a journal h-index through Google Metrics.


To use Google Metrics for calculating your author h-index, set up a "Google Scholar Citations" account
and add all of your pubications to the account.  Google will keep a
running calculation of how often you are cited, where you are cited and a
current h-index.  Profiles can remain private or be made public.


Publish or Perish Software
that uses Google Scholar data to calculate h-index and g-indexes for
authors and/or journals.  It must be installed on your computer and
works best on a PC.   With this tool, you can easily remove duplicate
results, articles by authors with a similar name and limit results to
specific date ranges (for example, to calculate an h10-index).


SciMago A
quick way to find h-indexes or compare h-indexes across journal by
discipline or subject. This is a Scopus-driven tool, so some social
science journals aren't covered and citations from not-covered journals
aren't counted.  Also, watch the coverage dates.  If a journal hasn't
been tracked for long, the h-index will naturally be lower than from a
source that has tracked that journal back to volume 1.


Web of Science Calculates
h-indexes for both journals and authors.  This number is based on
citations from the journals tracked by this databases, which excluded
many education and social science journals, so numbers will appear lower
than they do in Google Scholar and Publish or Perish.  Simply do a
search for your journal (limited to the "Publication Name" field) or
your name (limited to the "Author" field).  Once results are returned,
follow the "Create Citation Report" link along the right side of the
screen.

What it is:  A measure similar to the h-index
that was disigned to consider very highly cited publications and reflect
significant contributions to their field.  Two authors may have similar
h-indexes, but one may have a higher g-index due to a very highly cited
paper or book.


Where to find it: Publish or Perish

Causes for the Persistence of Impact Factor Mania


Document Categories in the ISI Web of Knowledge: Misunderstanding the Social Sciences?


DORA: San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment


Lost in Publication: How Measurement Harms Science


Maximizing the Impacts of Your Research: A Handbook for Social Scientists 


Research Assessment, Altmetrics and Tools for Determining Impact 


Stephen Curry Blog Post: Sick of Impact Factors


Steve Caplan?s Blog Post: In Defense of Journal Hierarchy 

For additional information, contact Education Librarian, Janelle Hedstrom at [email protected]