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Scholarly metrics (also known as research metrics) are citation-based calculations that aim to represent the impact or importance of an article, author, or journal. Some scholarly metrics you may be familiar with include Journal Impact Factor (JIF or IF), h-index, and Relative Citation Ratio (RCR).
There has been much debate about the use of scholarly metrics in academia. Some academics find scholarly metrics to be unhelpful, or even harmful, as these metrics are often misunderstood, and can be used inappropriately as proxy measurements for the quality of publications (and their authors). In addition, because metrics are based on social practices (giving credit to other researchers) they tend to propagate disparities with respect to gender, race, ethnicity, etc. Some also question whether these metrics pressure authors to publish "hot topic" articles in only the most "impactful" journals, as opposed to producing more thoughtful and original work.
Use the tabs on the left to learn more about the metrics available at the author-, article-, and journal-level from different library-subscribed and free resources.
