UPDATE: ImpactStory is not free, as I first thought, they currently have a 30 day free trail, then the cost is $45/year.
Its clear that judging a researchers output purely on the impact/quality of the journal they do/don’t publish is not always the best way to accurately judge individual achievement and output. To that end, article level metrics have recently emerged as a potential way to generate a more accurate picture of a individual researchers output.
I hadn’t really taken much notice of article metrics, however a friend at work recently told me about Impactstory, a new website that is….
an open-source, web-based tool that helps researchers explore and share the diverse impacts of all their research products—from traditional ones like journal articles, to emerging products like blog posts, datasets, and software
Its very quick and easy to signup and quickly get a snapshot of your article specific metrics. You can see my results here [link].
Interestingly, my PlosOne paper is ranked 3rd, above the 4th placed EMBO publication, which according to the traditional Impact Factor measurement would be viewed as a much, much, much better publication.
Another player in this space is ResearchGate, which has been around for much longer. It gives you a RG score, which “takes all your research and turns it into a source of reputation”.
How does the RG Score work? Your RG Score is calculated based on how other researchers interact with your content, how often, and who they are. The higher their score, the more yours will increase.
Here is an example of what a profile looks like:
Its going to be very interesting to see how these new metrics impact on the judging of individual scientists output, and if, when and which metric grant funding bodies will prefer.
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