Metrics are quantitative measures commonly used to assess the impact of research. They can provide insight into the influence of journals, individual articles, authors, collaborative networks and institutions.
Metrics should be used with caution because they can only tell you so much about the quality, success or impact of research and researchers. For example, research may receive negative attention and metrics can be influenced by things like discipline and career stage. It's important to be aware of these limitations.
It is recommended that you use a combination of metrics (triangulation) to give insight when trying to answer questions about research impact. If multiple metrics reinforce each other then users can be more confident in their conclusions. Ideally combining peer review and expert opinion with metrics is advisable.
The University is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which is an international initiative to improve the ways in which researcher and scholarly outputs are evaluated.