For researchers

• For an introduction to research metrics please read our Research Metrics Information Sheet.
• There are two main types of research metrics:
  • Bibliometrics are a way to quantify the readership of research publications in the academic community based on the number of times that the publications are referenced in other academic publications. There are many bibliometrics services and each one may have a unique set of proprietary metrics. Oxford Brookes has a subscription to the Web of Science database which includes a set of bibliometric services at the levels of both the article (e.g. Times Cited) and journal (e.g. Journal Impact Factor).
  • Altmetrics are similar to Bibliometrics in that they try to quantify the reach of research publications, but instead of relying on academic citations they instead draw upon how often the publication is mentioned on social media, in the news, in governmental documents, and on other online platforms. The leading service for Altmetrics is probably Altmetric.com - we have linked RADAR to Altmetric.com so that any record with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and that has an Altmetric score greater than 0 will display an Altmetric.com badge in the Related Resources section at the bottom of the page (e.g. this output with a very high Altmetric score). The information from Altmetric.com may indicate where research 'impact' (i.e. affecting a change beyond the academic community) has happened (e.g. if it has been cited in a government policy document).
• Publish or Perish is a tool that some researchers use for calculating the bibliometrics of their own research publications. There is a detailed user manual here. 
• Whilst bibliometrics and altmetrics can offer a useful perspective on the reach of research publications they can be misunderstood and misapplied. Initiatives such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (also known as DORA) and the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics argue for the responsible use of metrics in research assessment. Oxford Brookes University is a signatory of DORA and is fully committed to implementing the principles of open, responsible and fair research assessment.

Here are two resources created by external institutions to help you develop your research profile:

• Vitae: a non-profit programme supporting the professional development of researchers
• UK Research and Innovation advice on developing a career in research

• Oxford Brookes has an 'Intellectual property policy and regulations' document that can be accessed from the Policies and codes of practice webpage.
• One key aspect of the policy is that Oxford Brookes has waived the intellectual property rights that the institution could exercise over the research publications that Oxford Brookes research staff produce, meaning it belongs to the authors themselves.
• The Scholarly Communications Team recommend that researchers consider the value of their intellectual property before giving the copyright of their publications to a publisher as part of a publishing contract. Some scholarly publishers only request the licensing rights of the publications rather than the copyright, which means that the authors retain ownership of the content of the publications.

• An ORCID is a persistent and unique identifier for a researcher.
• By signing up for an ORCID number you help to establish your research profile and distinguish yourself from any other researcher with a similar name.
• ORCID numbers are increasingly important to the workflows of research funders, institutions, and scholarly publishers.

• The Scholarly Communications Team (openaccess@brookes.ac.uk) can assign either an ISBN or DOI to your Oxford Brookes publication, depending on whether it is published in print or online.
• ISBNs (International Standard Book Number) are unique identifiers for your print publications (primarily books) that are published by you or Oxford Brookes University. The cost of an ISBN is £91 and you will be required to deposit a copy of the publication in at least one of the legal deposit libraries (e.g. the British Library).
• DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) are unique identifiers for your online publications (books, reports, research data, etc.) that are published by you or Oxford Brookes University. DOIs are free though the expectation is that the publication will exist in Radar (Oxford Brookes' institutional repository).