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Research evidence for grants and promotion

A 'how to' guide on information and tools for capturing evidence of, and describing, research outputs.

Researcher ranking

Researcher ranking is a method of sorting researchers nationally or globally by either citations or field-weighted citation impact. This method can be limited to a specific date range or subject area. In SciVal, the subject area can be further refined into topic clusters, or specific topics. 

Researcher metrics become more salient as the number of publications increases. For early-career researchers, publication metrics may be more appropriate in demonstrating impact of your research.  

Example statement

"My field-weighted citation impact for the last 4 years is 6.55, which places me in the top 20 researchers in Australia within the Field of Research for Public Health." (source: SciVal, 22 December 2023)

How to list researchers by FWCI (or another metric) in SciVal

  1. In SciVal, select Explore
  2. From the Entity list, select the Countries, Regions and Groups
  3. Either search or create group for the geographical area you would like to view. e.g. Australia
  4. Once selected, change the year range and the subject area
  5. The subject area can be changed using different classifications. In the example below, Fields of Research (FoR) is selected
  6. From the menu on the left, scroll down to Authors to view the top 500 authors, and from the pull down menu, change the metric from citations to Field-Weighted Citation Impact
  7. Sort by FWCI and find your name from the list of authors.

 

SciVal australian authors in public health ranking by FWCI

Image: Copyright © Elsevier. Used under licence.

Benchmarking against others

Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)

FWCI is data sourced from SciVal or Scopus. FWCI is an author metric that compares the total citations actually received by a researcher's publications to the average number of citations received by all other similar publications from the same research field.

The global mean of the FWCI is 1.0, so a FWCI of 1.50 means 50% more cited than the world average; whereas, an FWCI of 0.75 means 25% less cited than the world average.

 

Example statement

"My field-weighted citation impact for the last 3 years is 1.78, which indicates that my papers have been cited 78% above the world average." (source: SciVal, 24 May 2024)

How to find FWCI in SciVal

  1. In SciVal, select Compare and then All metrics
  2. To find an author FWCI, from the Entity list, from Researchers and Groups, select your name, or use the Create/Import option to Define a researcher
  3. If needed, adjust the date range and subject areas
  4. View in either Table or Chart view
  5. Select Add metric. From the heading Cited, select Field-weighted citation impact and then choose metric.

You can also add further metrics by selecting Manage multiple metrics. The example below has also added International collaborators (as a percentage) and Publications in Journal Quartiles (as well as selecting the percentage and journal ranking metric).

Benchmarking against other entities can be selected from the Entity list on the left menu. This can include Countries, Regions and Groups.

SciVal Researcher ranking and benchmarking page

Image: Copyright © Elsevier. Used under licence.

Note: The FWCI can also be viewed using Explore, but Compare allows you to select a longer date range.

Category Normalised Citation Impact (CNCI)

CNCI is data sourced from InCites of Web of Science. CNCI benchmarks the impact of an article or the impact of a researcher in a particular subject area. The CNCI of a document is calculated by dividing the number of citations by the expected citation rate for documents of the same type, year of publication and subject area. The CNCI for a set of documents, such as the work of an author or a group of authors, uses the average of all the CNCI values for documents in the set. 

CNCI can also apply across several subject areas although it is a more meaningful metric if it is only for a single subject area.

A CNCI of 1 would be on par with the average citations for the subject area; more than 1 would be above average, and anything below 1 would be less than average.

 

Example statement 

“My category-normalised citation impact for the last five years at my current institution is 1.74, which is 74% higher than the global average in my categories of research." (source: InCites, 22 December 2023)

How to find CNCI in InCites

  1. Go to InCites
  2. Access the Analyze module
  3. At the I'd like to analyze prompt, change entity type to Researchers and select Start
  4. Search for a researcher's name
  5. If needed, use Filters to limit years, or other options, e.g. Research Area
  6. Use either the table or visual view
  7. Within the visual view, use the dropdown menu, then Category Normalized Citation Impact.

Incite CNCI

Image: Copyright © Clarivate. Used under licence.

Topics and topic clusters

A Topic is a dynamic collection of documents that are multidisciplinary with a common focused interest. Topic clusters are formed by aggregating Topics with similar research interest together to form a broader, higher-level area of research.

From within a chosen subject area, they can showcase your contribution to a specific research topic, as well as provide a broader understanding of the research being done by a country or institution.

Example statement

"My field-weighted citation impact for the last 4 years is 2.41 for the Topic of Ecotourism; Case Study; Volunteer Tourism, which is 141% higher than the global average in my categories of research." (source: SciVal, 29 May 2024)

 

How to find Topics and Clusters in SciVal

  1. In SciVal, select Explore
  2. From the Entity list, from Researchers and Groups, select your name, or use the Create/Import option to Define a researcher. Other options include institutions and groups
  3. If needed, change the date range and the subject area
  4. From the left menu, scroll down to the heading Research Fields and then Topics
  5. Select Topics or Topic Clusters. View the scholarly output, FWCI, prominence percentile, as well as selecting various formats such as table and wheel
  6. Hover over topic name to have an option to analyse activity of an individual researcher or analyse worldwide trends in that topic, such as most active institutions and countries.

Topics and Topic clusters in SciVal

Image: Copyright © Elsevier. Used under licence.