Track Your Research Impact

Tracking your research impact can be important for a researcher at any stage in their career.  Tracking research impact can help you:  

• understand when and how others are engaging with your research 
• strengthen your case when applying for funding 
• articulate your impact as part of career milestones like applying for promotion and tenure, or for awards 

Two key tools can help you understand and track your research impact over time: persistent identifiers and research metrics.  

Persistent identifiers are unique researcher identifiers that you can add to your research outputs to ensure that your work is properly attributed to you. The most popular persistent identifier is the ORCID identifier, with over 2.8 million registered researcher IDs. Creating a persistent identifier can help you track your research impact by providing a complete record of all your research activity. Many publishers, funders, institutions and other research service providers offer integrations with persistent identifiers, which you can use to build your profile and learn more about the impact of your work. Learn more about ORCID identifiers. 

Research metrics provide data to help you quantify the reach and impact of your research. Metrics exist at multiple levels, from individual articles and journals to researchers themselves. Within each category there are a wide variety of metrics to choose from, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Learn more about research metrics.

Get assistance 

We can help you:  

• create ORCID and other research identifiers  
• understand the role of each type of research metric 
• understand and advocate for appropriate uses of research metrics 
• select and contextualize research metrics as part of demonstrating the impact of your work 
• use research metrics to bolster your grant application 

Individual appointments  

Book an individual appointment for support with creating or optimizing your use of ORCID or other persistent identifiers, navigate research metrics, and more.

In-class instruction 

We can support your students by providing in-class workshops (virtually or in-person) on any of the topics listed above. Connect with us to discuss library research support for your students. 

Upcoming Workshops