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Research Impact: Author Level Impact

Common Author Level Metrics

Common author level metrics that can be retrieved with an author search in Google Scholar or Scopus include:

  • number of publications
  • aggregate citation count for the author's collective publications (called "documents" in Scopus)
    • number of times cited overall
    • number of citing documents (one document might cite the author multiple times)
  • countries of the citers (Scopus Author Evaluator link on author detail page)
  • graphs of the date range of citations
  • author's h-index

Scopus Author Search

In Scopus, click on the Authors tab to search for an author by name. If an author search returns multiple profiles for your name, check to see which profiles contain your publications. If your publications are split amongst two or more profiles, you should merge them so that your bibliometric calculations (such as h-index) are accurate. Select all of the profiles that are yours and then click "Request to Merge Authors." You will need to create a Scopus account to place this request.  

scopus author search results with request to merge authors circled in red

Fixing errors in Scopus author profiles

You may find that your information is not accurate in your Scopus profile - maybe the institution is incorrect, or a paper is missing. You can request changes to your profile by going to your Scopus profile homepage, and selecting "edit profile." Updates are usually made quickly, and it's a good idea to check over your information to make sure it's complete and accurate.

scopus author profile page with edit profile button circled in red

 

h-index

Summarily, the h-index quantifies a researcher's output as:

h publications, each having at least h citations

Although both Google Scholar and Scopus can calculate a researcher's h-index, they might arrive at different numbers. Because the scope of their collections are different, an author's publication count and citation count might differ between Scopus and Google Scholar. Consequently, the calculated h-index might differ.

The h-index and traditional bibliometric measures have been criticized for not adequately capturing the impact of social scientists or early career researchers.

scopus author profile with h-index circled in red

Google Scholar Author Search

From Google Scholar, select the Advanced Search option. Under "return articles authored by", type the first and last name of the author you are looking for.

If that author already has a Google Scholar profile, a link directly to that profile will appear at the top of the results page.  If not, you can still get that information by clicking the hyperlinked name of the author you are interested in from one of the results. The difference is that author who have created profiles verify that they are in fact the correct authors for particular papers, whereas authors without a profile are letting Google algorithms do that work. 

 

Once you have found an author's profile, you can see citation metrics for that author as well as individual papers Google Scholar attributes to them. Each paper will also have it's own citation metrics. 

You may notice a discrepancy between Google Scholar's citation numbers and Scopus'. Google Scholar has more material than Scopus does, but it is also possible that there are duplicate citations, incorrect citations, or citations from predatory journals in Google Scholar. Scopus vets the journals they include in their database, so while the numbers are lower they are all verified.