Sources of Research Metrics

Scopus

Scopus is a multidisciplinary database containing abstracts and cited references of peer reviewed literature, including journal articles, books and conference proceedings. It contains more than 7 million items, with cited references back to 1970 and more than 16 million author profiles. Information on the content coverage can be found here. You can also download the full list of journal and book titles included from this link.

How do I access Scopus?

Scopus is a subscription service which can accessed via this link - https://www.scopus.com/. Logging into Scopus is recommended even when on campus, this allows you to save searches and create alerts.

Metrics available in Scopus

• Journal metrics – CiteScore, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)
• Article metrics – PlumX, citations and Field weighted citation impact
• Author metrics – h-index, citation overview

For an overview of how to view metrics for a journal in Scopus please click here.

SciVal

SciVal is an online tool which uses Scopus data from 1996 to present, in order to analyse research outputs, identify collaborative partnerships and see trends. SciVal consists of 5 modules:

1. Overview – High level overview of researchers, institutions and groups
2. Benchmarking – Comparisons between researchers, institutions and groups
3. Collaboration – Explore networks and identify potential collaborators
4. Trends – Investigate topics in depth
5. Reporting – Create reports tailored to specific needs

How do I use SciVal?

SciVal is a subscription service which can be accessed via this link - https://www.scival.com. You can use SciVal to:

• Create groups of researchers
• Create publication sets
• Analyse research performance using a range of metrics across different disciplines

Metrics available in SciVal

There are over 30 different metrics available in SciVal. You should ensure you select appropriate metrics for your particular question and that you are aware of influencing factors such as size of group/number of outputs, discipline, time frame and coverage. 

For a full range of metrics available in SciVal see the metrics guidebook.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides an alternative citation count to Scopus and is openly available. You can search for articles or authors here. Citations to articles are computed and updated automatically as Google Scholar updates. Scholar trawls the web to pick up references to articles and does not require a source to meet the same criteria as Scopus in order to be included. This can result in there being a significant difference between your citation count in Google and on Scopus.

Google Scholar Metrics enable authors to quickly gauge the visibility and influence of recent articles in scholarly publications. Scholar Metrics can be used to browse the top 100 publications by their 5 year h-index and h-median metrics. Scholar Metrics are currently based on our index as it was in June 2020.

Further information on metrics in Google Scholar can be found here. 

Altmetrics

Altmetrics are metrics and qualitative data that are complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics. They provide insight into how people are interacting with research online and can be used alongside other metrics to help demonstrate early engagement and discussions around research. Altmetrics can be used to indicate​ attention​, dissemination​ and influence.

There are two main providers of altmetric data:

Altmetrics

This is available on the Pure Portal. The metrics are represented by an  'Altmetric Donut' and the colours vary depending on which sources the output has received attention from. The central score is a weighted approximation of attention based on volume, sources and authors.​ 

Some of the sources covered are listed below: 

• Policy documents
• News/blogs
• Social media
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Patents

Further information on the colours and weighting is available here. Note, we do not subscribe to this service and therefore the detail available in Pure may be limited.

PlumX

This is available on  Scopus and the Pure Portal for outputs with a DOI. Metrics are represented by the 'Plum Print' which shows the categories below. 

The five categories are:

• Citations – Takes into account traditional citation indexes such as Scopus, as well as Clinical or Policy Citations
• Usage – Indications if an output is being read. e.g. clicks, downloads, views, library holdings, video plays
• Captures – Where an item has been marked for future use e.g. bookmarks, code forks, favourites, readers, watchers
• Mentions – Activities such as news articles or blog posts
• Social media - Includes Twitter, Facebook posts etc. that reference the research. Social Media can help measure attention

More information on Plum X is available here. Note, we do not subscribe to this service and therefore the detail available in Pure may be limited.
 

Practice Exercises

To help familiarise yourself with some of the functionality in Scopus and SciVal if you have not used these tools previously there are a couple of simple practice exercises below. 

For more information on Scopus and SciVal please see the links provided in this course to guidance documents, the pages on LibGuides or contact scival@coventry.ac.uk for help.

Scopus

1. Review metrics associated with an article:

• Find an article published recently, this could be your own, a colleague's or one identified from a keyword search for an area of interest. Display the document details for that article and select view all metrics
• Look at the citation benchmarking percentile. How does this output compare to others within the same subject area and of the same age and type?
• Review the article’s PlumX metrics. Does it have any interactions? If so which are strongest: usage, captures, citations, mentions or social media?

2. Browse and compare sources:

• Navigate to the sources page in Scopus and select subject area and select an area of interest e.g. insect science.
• Filter the results to only show open access journals
• Find the journal with the highest SNIP value

SciVal

1. View a summary of metrics for an institution:

• Go to the overview module and select the institutions and groups icon on the left. Ensure Coventry University is selected and set the date range to 2016-2020
• Review the Scholarly output, FWCI, percentage of publications with an international co-author and percentage of publications with a corporate author

2. Compare institutions:

• Select the benchmarking module and select the institutions and groups icon on the left. Then, search for another couple of universities and add these to the list to compare
• On the y-axis select ‘outputs in top citation percentiles’ under Cited. Select Field weighted, outputs in top 10%, shown as a percentage. On the x-axis select publication year
• Review the change over time of the different institutions