(22 Jun 2023) Clarivate Plc, a global leader in connecting people and organizations to intelligence they can trust to transform their world, released a report from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™ which further promotes the shift from a reliance on simplistic research metrics towards the adoption of visually informative profiles. The report also encourages actionable engagement and input from the global research community. Such profiles promote a comprehensive understanding of research activities, to direct policymakers and research managers towards evidence-informed decisions that lead to positive outcomes.
Unpacking research profiles: Moving beyond metrics focuses on four aspects of research activity and academic publishing, where profiles reveal key information – at researcher, journal, institutional, and research field levels. The in-depth analysis draws on Web of Science™ data to show how profiles serve as valuable tools to aid interpretation, explain unexpected results, and guide future investment.
The report focuses on four key areas: Individuals and their publications: The issue of excessive self-citation in research publications is addressed, with identification of outliers following examination of the distinctive patterns of self-citation observed among Highly Cited Researchers™, while considering variations in citation rates between fields; Future research trends: Research Fronts™ identifies current areas of research attention by analyzing frequently cited, recent papers that cluster together, providing valuable insights for research planning, resource management and policy decisions; Journals and their characteristics: The profile and value of a journal in the Web of Science is more than its Journal Impact Factor™. We explore how the indicator of national orientation (INO) offers new perspectives on journals, helping researchers choose the best venues for their papers; and Influence of international collaboration: Simple metrics mask the influence of well-cited, internationally co-authored papers, so cannot be properly used to assess them. Collaborative Citation Impact (Collab-CNCI) allows deconstruction of impact, enabling better evaluation of domestic and international activity.
Unpacking research profiles: Moving beyond metrics is a follow-up to the 2019 Global Research Report, Profiles, not metrics, which highlights the limitations of simplified metrics in capturing the full scope of research performance and proposes alternative visualizations that provide a more comprehensive and responsible approach to research management.
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