Using Citation Metrics to determine Author Impact can help scholars not only identify significant voices in their field, but also provide one indicator of an author's perceived value - by demonstrating where and how one's work has been cited. Citation metrics have been applied for purposes of hiring, promotion and tenure.
Citation Databases and Indices can be used to:
- Demonstrate how often an author's work has been cited
- Discover who is doing related work
- Track the published work of colleagues and competitors
- Explore the evolution of theories and ideas through citation tracking
- Identify key authors in a field
- Build a research profile so others can find and follow one's work
Recommended Tools include:
Web of Science Citation Report
Google Scholar Profile
No one tool will provide complete information about an author's citations. Each database only searches material in that database. It is best to explore multiple sources.
Also, remember that citation counts never tell the whole story. They don't indicate why a item was cited or how significant or positive the reference was, and the indices that measure author impact often don't consider the duration of an author's career. Lastly, citation counts and indices only should be compared within an academic discipline. Publishing patterns in physics, for example, differ from those in Sociology.