Impact

Find evidence of your research impact by analysing your traditional publications (e.g. journal articles, books, book chapters). Beyond academia, it is important to investigate whether community, industry, government or other end-users, that you have not yet engaged with, may also be using your research.

Citation network

Analyse the publications citing your research to find:

• Who is citing your publications?
• Why are they citing your publications?
• Where are they from?
• What areas do they work in?

Find citation network metrics in Web of Science and Scopus. Our Metrics page also has information on finding and using publication metrics.

Online attention

Altmetric (for researchers) is a tool that helps track engagement with your research online by monitoring:

• public policy documents — organisations have policy documents that cite your research. Identify what aspects of your research are used to support the policy
• blogs — your papers are mentioned in influential blogs, either mainstream or relative to your field
• mainstream media — your work is referred to by outlets with a wide audience or readership e.g. CNN , The Guardian or the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
• social media (e.g. Twitter and Facebook ) — thought leaders in your field are commenting on, tweeting about or sharing your research output
• Wikipedia — your work is referred to as a secondary source in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is known to be a readily accessible source where people globally go to get a sense of a concept or idea. Your reference in Wikipedia may indicate influence on the particular topic.  

Find online attention to your publications via Altmetric Explorer, Dimensions, UQ eSpace and the Altmetric bookmarklet.

Media analytics

Analysis of media attention to your research can provide evidence of impact on economy, society, environment or culture. Identify your research covered in:

• News stories or press releases
• Parliamentary, legislative, judicial and regulatory news
• News outlets with an audience or readership (e.g. policy makers, practitioners, general public) that could use your research to instigate change
• News stories or media reports on social changes arising from your research

Find media analytics via the Conversation and LexisNexis Capital Monitor.

Patent citations

Citations from patents to scholarly publications may provide evidence about the economic influence of your research.

Find details of patent documents that have cited your work and patents that have cited your patents.

See how to find patent citations on our Metrics page and via PatCite.

Data citation and sharing

Make your research datasets openly available to increase the opportunity for re-use and data citation. Citations to and re-use of your datasets may strengthen its validity and significance.

Search for datasets that you have made visible to see if they have been cited.

Website analytics

If you have a webpage documenting your research, analyse who has visited your site. You can get details on demographics to get evidence of who is looking at your material and where they are located.

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.

Book reviews

Book reviews of your work can be valuable to boost your book’s visibility  and also demonstrate your scholarly reputation. Book reviews in scholarly publications can show your impact to your peers and within your field of research, while reviews of your works in newspapers or online can demonstrate your impact to the wider community.

To find book reviews try:

• Factiva — search for your book and select Book Reviews under subjects
• The New York Times book review 
• goodreads 
• H-Net reviews — scholarly reviews in the humanities and social sciences.

Publisher quality

When choosing a  publisher, reputation and academic standing is vital.  Quality publishers of academic books include: Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell, Taylor & Francis, SAGE, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Blackwell, De Gruyter and McGraw Hill.

Strategic Scholarly Publishing has more information on choosing where to publish.

Impactstory

Impactstory is a website that helps researchers explore and share the the online impact of their research. You will need a Twitter or ORCID account to login. Data sources for Impactstory include Altmetric, BASE, Mendeley, CrossRef, ORCID and Twitter.