Different tools that can help measure the impact of both the articles that you publish and the journals in which you publish your articles are available to you through both library subscriptions and on the open web.
It is important to remember that each of these tools look at different data sources.
Analysis of journals is a way traditional peer review may be augmented to gain a more complete picture of a scholar's impact in his chosen field. Three measures can be used:
number of publications
number of times an author's publications have been cited
the importance of the journal where the article is published, or the Journal Ranking.
Publishing traditions vary between disciplines. Because of this, it is important to compare journals within the same or similar disciplines as much as possible. This will not always be easy as more research becomes interdisciplinary but in order for these journal ranking systems to have meaning the factors measured must compare journals in similar disciplines or subject areas.
Citation analysis is the study of the impact and assumed quality of an article, an author, or an institution based on the number of times works and/or authors have been cited by others.
Use citation analysis to