Research Guides: Research & Data Services: Research Impact

Research Impact

Description: We are able to use various tools to measure their impact or influence of publications by an individual researcher, a group or an institution. Impact can be measures in various ways, with the most common one using citations to publications.

Services:

Introduction to citation metrics and impact metrics
Workshop on research impact and citation metrics
Report for the citation to the publications of individual faculty and other relevant citation metrics
Report for a group of researchers
Benchmarking report for selected institutions

Visual Abstract

Description:

We help researchers create visual abstracts of their published papers to boost research visibility and impact through social media and other digital channels, effectively communicating complex findings to a broader audience.

Service scope and eligibility:

Available for research publications with grant funding. Non-grant related publications are considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to library's review.
Each visual abstract allows up to 2 revisions per request
Limited to 1 visual abstract per requestor per year
Service is subject to a quota of 8 visual abstracts per year

Case Example

Our team has collaborated with SMU faculty across disciplines to create a diverse collection of visual abstracts. Faculty have successfully used these visual abstracts to communicate their findings on social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and other academic networking sites, enhancing the visibility and impact of their research.

Tools for Citation & Impact Analysis

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is an important cross-disciplinary abstract & citation database of research literature. Use Scopus to search for article level citation metrics like total cites or FWCI as well as a list of sources indexed in Scopus and their respective Journal level metrics like Citescore, SJR, and SNIP.

SMU Libraries has access to Scopus API that can be used for text and data mining. More info here.

The subscription also includes Scopus AI, a generative AI tool, integrated with the Scopus database to enhance research efficiency. It offers features like natural-language search, concise summaries with references, concept maps for visualizing research links, and expert identification. Designed for speed and reliability, it supports interdisciplinary collaboration while leveraging trusted, peer-reviewed academic content.

SciVal
SciVal can be used to view research performance and to benchmark with peers and peer institutions, using a range of metrics. You need to register for an account to use SciVal. The data for the metrics in SciVal comes from Scopus.

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Use this database to identify highly cited articles in a subject area and authors who cite a specific article. Use it to search for articles using keyword and even by institution name.
Web of Science includes Social Sciences Citation Index (from 1900), Science Citation Index Expanded (from 1965), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (from 2008), and Book Citation Index (2005-2018)

SMU Libraries has access to Web of Science API Lite. More info here.

Overton This link opens in a new window
Overton is the world’s largest searchable index of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers with over 4.7 million documents. It collects data from 182 countries (including Singapore) and thousands of sources worldwide such as NBER, World Bank, Federal Reserve, Asian Development Bank and even Government of Singapore. See sources list
Overton also allows you to see which of your papers are cited or mentioned by policy documents at both an individual level or at an institutional level helping you track your influence outside academia.

Overton also classifies policy documents by UN SDGs ( Sustainable Development Goals) allowing you to filter by specific goals.

Overton can help to identify policy citations to your research.

Alternative metrics like social media, policy citations, news mentions, captures and usage can be viewed for individual publications on InK (SMU repository) and Scopus.