How do we track?
How do we track Research Impact?
There is no ONE way.
Even so, we do have methods to track impact based on various tangible methods, primary of which are:
Research Metrics
Research Metrics is a catch-all term that refers to various quantitative methods of evaluating the impact of a researcher, a piece of scholarship, or the influence of a journal. Associated tools include:
Other, less tangible methods may include qualitative methods of evaluation, including an evaluation of the impact of research on the real world, through policy or effective change.
Persistent Identifiers
Persistent Identifiers (or PIDs) are methods of ensuring that a researcher is best represented in connection with their scholarly output. This includes establishing Researcher Identifiers with journal aggregators like Scopus and Web of Science, as well as claiming a distinctive web presence to ensure you are easy to identify in relation to other researchers with a similar-sounding name. By establishing these identifiers, you:
- ensure the work you have done is attributed to you to ensure that your digital presence is as robust as possible;
- manage the problem of author ambiguity in the digital research environment;
- participate in a scholarly community used by researchers to collocate published research and manage author identity.
Creative Commons License
This guide has been created by the Toronto Metropolitan University Library and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License unless otherwise marked.
