Scholarly metrics are quantitative indicators of the impact or attention of scholarly output. There are metrics for journals (e.g., the famous Impact Factor), single publications like an article or book (e.g., citation count), or authors (e.g., h-index).
Scholarly metrics may inform important decisions, such as promotions or awards by granting agencies, and may be used in library collections decisions.
Metrics are reported for Duke faculty in several locations, including their Elements/Scholars@Duke profiles. Web of Science and Scopus are two tools that also report metrics for articles or authors and are accessible by anyone in the Duke community.
In addition to single metrics, there is increasing interest among researchers in managing their online presence or curating their digital identity. This means not only promoting their research, but increasing their visibility as the person behind the research, often using social media.
Loosely defined as how broadly scholarly research is being read, discussed, and used both inside and outside of the academy.
The Duke Medical Center Library has a comprehensive guide to individual author impact available here.
4. Article-level metrics: Instead of attempting to measure journals or individuals, article-level measure the impact of individual articles. PLoS pioneered this approach, and they measure usage (page views, downloads), citations (using Scopus, Web of Science, PMC, etc. data), and social networking mentions.