Bibliometric indicators - Introduction

Bibliometric indicators are statistics, such as citations or number of publications. They are used in various contexts:

They can be used in an exploratory way to gain insight about a field, such as finding research gaps, exploring cooperation networks, mapping topics, or to study publishing patterns and practices.
They may also be used in an evaluative way - on researcher CVs, in project reports, or in strategic decisions/evaluations. When used in this way, these statistics often serve as an imperfect proxy, or "indicator" for something (such as "impact", "productivity" etc.).

This module provides information about several common bibliometric indicators and potential issues to be aware of.

Analysis of bibliometric statistics is not a replacement for peer-review, and should not be used in a simplistic way to draw conclusions about quality. Indicators should be used in a responsible and appropriate way. You can read the University Library's Principles for responsible use of bibliometrics here. UHR also have guidelines for using indicators for individuals (UHR Publisering, 2020). Lenker til eit ekstern område.

There is a push for change in how indicators are used in research assessment, which is likely to change practices for use of traditional statistics (h-index, citations) on CVs. For example, the European Commission has published Towards a reform of the research assessment system Lenker til eit ekstern område. and institutions are signing the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment Lenker til eit ekstern område. - including UHR in Norway Lenker til eit ekstern område.. See more in Module 3.
Indicators have limitations that you should be aware of - see more on the next pages. For example:
- Indicators may not be appropriate for all publication types or fields, and many are not comparable between fields.
- Some indicators are not reliable when used for small groups of authors or publications
- Indicators may reflect existing biases within academia
- Indicators often do not distinguish between different contexts (e.g. teaching workload).

When used in an evaluative context, limitations of indicators may be compounded if what they are used as a proxy for is poorly defined (e.g. Moore et al. 2017 Lenker til eit ekstern område. on "excellence").

These pages are maintained by the Bibliometrics group at the University Library. Read about our activities or contact us.