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Research & Publication Metrics: Humanities

Faculty Resources

We understand that the tenure process can be a challenging and sometimes daunting journey, but we're here to support you every step of the way.

This guide provides access to a range of resources and information designed to help you navigate the tenure process, including finding and evaluating publications, distinguishing yourself as a scholar with a digital identity, and interpreting your research impact and metrics. Our goal is to help you achieve success in your academic career and make the most of your time as a faculty member.

A note on impact factor and Clemson Elevate: 

Impact factor represents an important method for asserting the national and even international reputation of a given publishing outlet. With the ongoing emphasis of research to the university’s future through Clemson Elevate, documenting the publishing journey has increased in its importance.

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Clemson OPEN: Institutional Respository (formerly TigerPrints)

Clemson's Institutional Repository

Clemson OPEN (formerly TigerPrints) is the Clemson University open access repository for many types of publications. Faculty are encouraged to submit and store their body of scholarly materials in order to increase the global reach of the College. 

WHY Clemson OPEN? 

 
  • Increase your impact and visibility as an author
  • Your personal map of readership distribution 
  • Downloads identified by institution and by country 
  • Exceptional Libraries support for easy updates
  • DOI provided for Academic Analytics and Faculty Success 

WHAT's in Clemson OPEN? 

  • Preprints
  • Reports 
  • White papers 
  • Curriculum and Teaching materials 
  • Conference Slides
  • Poster Presentations 
  • Articles 

Impact Factors

Humanities Research & Impact

Scholarly research impact in the fields related to the humanities refers to the process of scholars deeply exploring and providing new insights into human meaning and understanding through rigorous academic method. There are several impact factors that are commonly used to assess the influence and quality of research, but not all will accurately provide a picture of the impact of research conducted in the humanities:

  • Journal Impact Factor
  • Citation Count
  • H-Index
  • Altmetrics

Find out why and how to locate each of these impact factors using the tabs in this section.

Journal Impact Factor

This measures the average number of citations received by articles published in a particular journal. Journals with high impact factors are considered more prestigious and influential in the field.

If you're interested, check out Eugene Garfield's 2006 article on The History and Meaning of the Journal Impact Factor.

Citation Count

The number of times an article is cited in other research publications is one of the most widely used indicators of research impact. The more times an article is cited, the greater its influence on the field.

Good places to find citation count are Web of Science and Google Scholar.  

Citations depends on the network/scope of analysis - you'll get different numbers on Google Scholar vs Web of Science vs. Scopus vs. Scite.

 

H-Index

The H-index is a metric that measures both the productivity and impact of a researcher. It is calculated based on the number of articles a researcher has published and the number of times those articles have been cited.

For help finding the H-Index to measure the success and impact of your scholarly work, check out Day 8 of our Research Impact Challenge!

Altmetrics

Altmetrics measure the impact of research beyond traditional citation counts, such as mentions in social media, news articles, and policy documents. This can give a more comprehensive picture of the broader societal impact of research.

"No one can read everything," proclaims the authors of altmetrics: a manifesto.

For more information about using Altmetrics to measure the success and impact of your scholarly work, check out Day 9 of our Research Impact Challenge.