Demystifying Scholarly Metrics: A Practical Guide

by Marc W. Vinyard, Jaimie Beth Colvin

Overview

Demystifying Scholarly Metrics gives librarians and faculty the confidence to navigate the maze of scholarly metrics, identify quality journals in which to publish, and measure the impact of scholarly works.

Both librarians and professors can be overwhelmed by the bewildering number of scholarly metrics. This user-friendly book demystifies them, helping librarians become familiar with scholarly metrics and giving them the confidence to assist faculty at their institutions. It also equips faculty authors with the knowledge to evaluate journals and use metrics to track their scholarly impact.

Several controversies exist in the scholarly metrics landscape, including a disagreement between the proponents of altmetrics and traditional bibliometrics. Even more contentious debates are breaking out over predatory journals and open access publishing. Authors Mark Vinyard and Jaimie Beth Colvin, who successfully launched a faculty publishing initiative, explain which aspects of metrics are truly essential to grasp, and they place these numbers in context. They help readers identify the metrics that are the best fit for their scholarship and give librarians and professors the tools to make smart decisions in this changing scholarly metrics landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440875939
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/25/2022
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.15(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Marc W. Vinyard is Associate University Librarian for Graduate Campus Libraries and Liaison for Advertising, Business, and Integrated Marketing Communication at Pepperdine University, USA. He has 25+ years of experience as a business information specialist. He assists students with business research, extending beyond data retrieval to help them understand and contextualize the information. He has published several peer-reviewed articles and is co-author of the book Demystifying Scholarly Metrics: A Practical Guide (Libraries Unlimited, 2022).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Why Are You Reading This Book? 1

Chapter 2 You Know More Than You Think 7

Chapter 3 H-Indexes, Altmetrics, and Impact Factors-Oh My! 13

Chapter 4 Metrics for Ail Kinds of Scholars 77

Chapter 5 Open Access: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 105

Chapter 6 Finding a Journal That's the Right Fit 145

Chapter 7 Publish, Don't Perish! Applying What You've Learned 173

Chapter 8 Developing or Finding Metrics Services at Your Library 185

Chapter 9 Avoid Drowning in a Sea of Scholarly Metrics: How to Stay Current 205

Index 213

What People are Saying About This

Anne-Wil Harzing

"Written by librarians for librarians, but equally useful for academics wanting to know more about the wonderous world of scholarly metrics, the book does exactly what it says on the tin: demystifying scholarly metrics. It manages to do so through clear and engaging prose without talking down to its readers. Quite a feat!"

Mirian Ramirez Rojas

"Demystifying Scholarly Metrics: A Practical Guide is a wonderful didactic guide to scholarly metrics. The book offers a delightful journey to the core concepts, tools, methods, and indicators you can use to measure scholarly impact. The authors do an excellent job capturing the important terminology for understanding scholarly metrics and contributing to the discussion of bibliometrics. This book is for librarians and researchers interested in building or enhancing skills with research impact metrics."

Dianne Johnson

"A great book that addresses two different audiences appropriately and with a little humor. The visuals are awesome and a good reference for those people who work with scholarly metrics. The advice and examples are appropriate for novices and experts in the scholarly metrics world—a great read!"

Editorial Reviews

Written by librarians for librarians, but equally useful for academics wanting to know more about the wonderous world of scholarly metrics, the book does exactly what it says on the tin: demystifying scholarly metrics. It manages to do so through clear and engaging prose without talking down to its readers. Quite a feat!” —Anne-Wil Harzing, Professor and Staff Development Lead, Middlesex University

“A great book that addresses two different audiences appropriately and with a little humor. The visuals are awesome and a good reference for those people who work with scholarly metrics. The advice and examples are appropriate for novices and experts in the scholarly metrics world-a great read!” —Dianne Johnson, Sr. Professional Librarian/Wake Forest School of Medicine

“Demystifying Scholarly Metrics: A Practical Guide is a wonderful didactic guide to scholarly metrics. The book offers a delightful journey to the core concepts, tools, methods, and indicators you can use to measure scholarly impact. The authors do an excellent job capturing the important terminology for understanding scholarly metrics and contributing to the discussion of bibliometrics. This book is for librarians and researchers interested in building or enhancing skills with research impact metrics.” —Mirian Ramirez Rojas, Research Metrics Librarian, Ruth Lilly Medical Library, Indiana University School of Medicine

“Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals.” —Choice

“Through offering helpful context, explanations, ideas, and advice for scholarly writers, administrators, and librarians seeking to understand the ins and outs of scholarly metrics, Vinyard and Colvin thus deliver a strong, valuable work.” —Journal of Scholarly Publishing

“[A]n excellent resource for librarians and researchers at all levels of expertise in scholarly metrics.” —Technical Services Quarterly

“[A]nyone looking for a basic introduction to research metrics as they apply to institutional-level data, authors, journals, and books, then this guide will be an invaluable resource...The book would be an excellent addition to any broad-based collection for professional development or research support.” —Public Services Quarterly

From the Publisher