Impact evidence for traditional publications

Find evidence of your research impact by analysing your traditional publications, such as:

  • journal articles
  • books
  • book chapters
  • conference papers.

Investigate who may be using your research. It is important to look beyond academia to community, industry, government, or other end-users that you have not yet engaged with who might be using your research. 

Citation network

Analyse your citations 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. 

Check our Metrics pages for more 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. X (formerly 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
  • clinical guidelines - your papers are referred to by guidelines for clinicians and health care practioners on how to manage and treat specific medical conditions or support decision making in patient care.

Visit Altmetric for the full range of sources they monitor. 

Visit online attention to your research for advice on using Altmetrics.

PlumX Metrics provides details of online interaction with your publications indexed in the Scopus and CINAHL databases. It has more extensive coverage of policy citations compared to Altmetric Explorer. 

Sage Policy Profiles is a free tool which tracks how your research has been cited in policy from government, think tanks, and policymakers across the world. Unlike PlumX Metrics, it enables you to download this information for all of your publications rather than each publication individually. Visit this library guide for instructions on how to create a Sage Policy Profiles account. 

Media analytics

Analysing media attention of your research can provide evidence of impact on economy, society, environment, or culture. Identify how your research is 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)
  • 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 patient documents that have cited your work and which of your publications have been cited by patents. 

Data citation and sharing

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

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 has been looking at your material and where they are located. 

Login to your Google account to access Google Analytics, a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.

Book reviews

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

To find book reviews, try: