Measuring Research Impact

This guide provides an introduction to the information and issues regarding researcher and journal impact

Measuring Book Impact

Measuring the impact of a monograph is a little different. Most citation indices focus on articles, not books. To measure the impact of a monograph, include information like the number and type of libraries that own a book, book reviews, and number of citations where available.

Google Scholar Citations
Search by author or book title to find number of citations.

Book Review Digest+ (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Offers citations and excerpts of reviews of English language fiction and non-fiction books contained in over 100 periodicals published in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. From 1983 to present.
Humanities International Index (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Indexes and abstracts over 2,000 journals, books, and other internationally published works on a variety of topics in the humanities. Provides citation information for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works, including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings, and illustrations. Note: Absorbed American Humanities Index, effective December 2005.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Use Advanced Search. Search by author or title and limit to book reviews.

Provides full image access to a comprehensive archive of over 2,000 scholarly journals over 200 of which have complete backfiles. Nearly 40 subject areas are represented in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. New subjects and titles are added regularly. Links to the most recent issues of some journals are available through Project MUSE.
WorldCat (OCLC) This link opens in a new window
Use the "Libraries Worldwide" section of an individual book record in WorldCat to see which libraries and how many own a title. Contains more than 44 million bibliographic records describing materials (books, journals, films, manuscripts, scores, computer files, etc.) held by libraries around the world. More than 400 languages are represented.