BSCI, CRJ, & WGST Faculty: Library Services and Research Help

• Register for an ORCID ID 
• Identify journals in your research area
• Find journal impact factors
• Calculate your H-Index (your research output and impact)
• FInd your article DOIs
• Determine how many times your article, book, or book chapter has been cited

The ORCID ID is a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. Go to the ORCID Registration page to create your ORCID ID. 

ORCID, which stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID, is a global, not-for-profit organization that trives to enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and their affiliations by providing a unique, persistent identifier for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. For more info see the orcid.org website.

Some databases used by the Behavioral Sciences identify journals in their list of search hits that publish in your research areas (as indicated by your search words):

• Journal Citation Reports (VPN required for off-campus access): 
  • Click on the Browse categories link above the search box or on the Browse categories icon below the search box and then click through to your subject category to open its list of journals. Click on journal names to find more information about the journal, including scope, publisher information and more detailed information about their impact factors. 
  • Use Manuscript Matcher to find relevant, reputable journals for potential publication of your research
• PsycINFO / PsycARTICLES: Click on Publication under the Refine Results sidebar to the right of your list of search hits
• ScienceDirect: Click on Publication title under the Refine filters sidebar to the right of your list of search hits 
• Social Sciences Abstracts: Click on Publication under the Refine Results sidebar to the right of your list of search hits
• Sociological Abstracts: Click on Publication title under the Narrow your results sidebar to the left of your list of search hits
• SpringerLink: Click on Published In under the  Refine Your Search sidebar to the right of your list of search hits

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is used to measure the importance or rank of a journal by calculating how many times its articles are cited.

Journal Citation Reports (VPN required for off-campus access)

• Allows you to evaluate and compare journals and their impact factors using citation data drawn from approximately 12,000 journals and conference proceedings from more thant 3,300 publishers in over 60 countries.
• To find the Journal Impact Factors for journals in your specific research area:
  • Click on the Browse categories link above the search box or on the Browse categories icon below the search box
  • Click on your discipline area to open a list of specific subject categories
  • Click through to your subject category and select it to open a list of journals with their Journal Impact Factors (JIF)
  • Click on journal names to find more information about the journal, including scope, publisher information and more detailed information about their impact factors
• Check out the Journal Citation Reports Help page for more information and support.

The h-index, or Hirsch index (2005), is a number intended to represent both the productivity and the impact of a particular scientist or scholar, or a group of scientists or scholars (such as a departmental or research group). The h-index is calculated by counting the number of publications for which an author has been cited by other authors at least that same number of times.  For instance, an h-index of 17 means that the scientist has published at least 17 papers that have each been cited at least 17 times.  If the scientist's 18th most cited publication was cited only 10 times, the h-index would remain at 17.  If the scientist's 18th most cited publication was cited 18 or more times, the h-index would rise to 18.

Hirsch, J. E.(2005). An index to quantify an individual;s scientific research output. PNAS, 102. 16569-72. doi:10.1073/pnas.0507655102.

Use Library Databases to find your h-index

• Web of Science - Author Search 
  • VPN required for off-campus access
• Scopus - Author Search 
  • Citations to pre-1996 articles are not currently included in the h-index calculation
  • VPN required for off-campus access
• Keep in mind that each database will give different values for the h-index. This is because each database must calculate the value based on the citations it contains. Since databases cover different publications in different ranges of years, the h-index result will therefore vary.  
• Keep in mind that what is considered a "good" h-index may differ depending on the scientific discipline.  A number that is considered low in one field might be considered quite high in another field.

Use this Free DOI Lookup tool to look up the DOIs of your published articles:

• First Author search only retrieves DOIs for articles for which you were first author
• Use an Article Title search for articles for which you were not the first author
• Not all of your articles will have DOIs, especially any that are more than about 20 years old

Web of Science calculates how many times your articles or book chapters (published 2005 and later) have been cited: