Research Impact is the effect that your research has in your specific field, in academia and beyond. When measuring the impact of one's research it helps to understand the reach of the work, who is interacting with it and how, and how others look to build on it. Visit the links below to learn more about author and article-level impact, DigitalScholarship@UNLV, learning how to share your research to increase visibility.
The h-Index is a primary author-level metric designed to measure research quality over time and accounts for the author's scholarly productivity and research impact. The h-Index is calculated as follows - H stands for the number of articles that have each been cited H number of times. So, an h-Index of 30 means that the author has published 30 articles that have each been cited 30+ times.
Altmetrics refers to "alternative metrics" and are generally article-level metrics. Altmetrics attempts to fill a gap in more traditional metrics by using a wider range of sources, such as social media, news outlets, blog posts, citation managers, and citation and download counts, to determine the impact (or "attention") of scholarship.
UNLV University Libraries is sponsoring a pilot of the Altmetric Explorer database. For more information on the pilot, and to offer feedback on the database, please go to the link below.
Digital Scholarship@UNLV is UNLV's institutional repository and is a free service provided by the University Libraries for all faculty and students at UNLV and the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine. Its mission is to capture, preserve, and share the intellectual output of UNLV faculty, staff, students, and collaborations with other stakeholders. Examples of works included in the repository include:
The author dashboard provides contributors with a variety of tools to help gauge impact and reach of their works that are included in Digital Scholarship@UNLV and any other Digital Commons hosted repository. The dashboard includes alternative metrics, such as the Altmetric Donut and the PlumX badge, in addition to downloads and views. An example of the readership report from the author dashboard is shown below.
To deposit your work into Digital Scholarship@UNLV, you can fill out the submission form for full-text works. You can also contact the Scholarly Communication and Data Services team with questions or provide a copy of your CV for review by emailing the department at digitalscholarship@unlv.edu.
Many academics use social media sites for professional networking purposes and to share their research with the general public. These sites are also often used to discuss hot topics, current trends, and have ongoing discussions during conferences or other events.
Several academic and scholarly networking sites allow scholars from various disciplines to connect with others and share their research. Similar to social media, but geared specifically towards an academic and scholarly audience, these networking sites help spread the word about your research, find collaborators, and check into what others in your field are publishing.