There are many available sources that provide research metrics. You may choose the one to use depending on the question you want to answer and on your discipline. We provide here a summary of the most common used sources of metrics.
- Subscription Databases
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, , are among the largest subscription databases, covering thousands of peer-reviewed sources. They provide a wide range of bibliometric data, including鈥痗itations, collaborations, publication sources and author affiliations.
The 黑料网 subscribes to鈥�Web of Science鈥痑nd uses鈥�InCites Analytics (Clarivate)鈥痑s a benchmarking and metrics tool.
Pros
- High data quality and curation,鈥痶he content is carefully vetted.
- Reliable citation tracking.
- Advanced analytics and benchmarking:鈥疶ools like鈥疘nCites鈥痑llow performance comparisons at author, group, or institutional level.
Cons
- Coverage bias:鈥疛ournals are better represented than books, book chapters, or conference proceedings. This can disadvantage disciplines like arts and humanities, where these outputs are primary.
- Data variation:鈥疎ach database includes different sources, so metrics for authors, articles, or institutions may vary depending on the database used.
- Data accuracy:鈥疨ublications can be misattributed, particularly if authors use variations of their names. Researchers can correct errors directly with the database provider. Using an鈥�鈥痩inked to research profiles helps minimise such mistakes.
- Open Source Databases
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Open-access databases provide free and transparent access to bibliographic metadata and research metrics.鈥�, launched in 2021, is one of the largest open databases, cataloguing metadata for over鈥�270 million scholarly publications, making it second only to Google Scholar. It offers a wide range of data, including鈥痗itations, author contributions, institutional affiliations, research topics, open access status, and more.
Other notable open-access platforms include:
, which focuses on European research outputs and open-access publications, (Scientific Electronic Library Online), a鈥痬ajor open-access database for Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish research, which is often underrepresented in subscription鈥痙atabases and , which aggregates millions of open-access articles from repositories worldwide.
Advantages
- Free and open:鈥疍ata can be accessed, downloaded, and reused without subscription fees.
- Extensive coverage:鈥疨articularly strong for disciplines like Arts and Humanities, which are often underrepresented in subscription databases.
- Transparency:鈥疧pen source nature allows for reproducibility and independent analyses.
Limitations
- Variable quality:鈥疭ome records may have incomplete or inconsistent metadata compared to subscription databases.
- Less curation:鈥疨otentially weaker vetting processes can affect reliability for certain analyses.
- Google Scholar
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Google scholar is a very popular bibliometric tool among researchers. It uses web-based sources to track an author's publications and citations. Google scholar includes also citations from non peer-reviewed sources in an author's profile. Therefore, usually the citation count in google scholar is higher than in other metric sources, such as subscription databases.
Limitations:
- Transparency: it is not clear which criteria are used to include resources in the google scholar database
- Data accuracy: often publications are attributed to the wrong author, in particular if the author has a popular surname.
- Duplicate copies of publications can result in multiple entries in the database.