Skip to Main Content

Research metrics

Information and resources to demonstrate impact using research metrics.

Book impact

It is generally more difficult to find citations to books than to journal articles, although Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar all include some citing references to books and book chapters.

The prestige of a book's publisher can significantly indicate its quality. Evaluating a publisher's quality involves considering their reputation, selection process, peer-review system, and the professional editing of manuscripts.

To measure a book's impact, consider:

  • Reviews and social media mentions
  • Use in university courses
  • Library holdings in Australia and internationally
  • Prizes, best-seller lists, and sales figures
  • Author's invitations to book signings and presentations
  • Availability in e-reader format
  • Inclusion in bibliographies
  • Subsequent editions and translations

For Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) inclusion, books must be published by a commercial or peer-reviewed publisher. Print-on-demand and vanity presses are not considered commercial publishers.

Library holdings

The following can be searched to locate library holdings of book titles:

Book reviews

Reviews of books and chapters can provide evidence of how they have been received by the scholarly community and outside of academia.

Reviews can be found in the scholarly literature as well as in popular sources, such as newspapers and magazines.

Some suggested databases to search for reviews are: