Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professor Kean Birch recently learned that two of his papers were the “Most Cited” and “Most Read” articles at the world’s leading science and technology studies journal, Science, Technology, & Human Values, at the same time. And this got him thinking.

Kean Birch

What other sorts of metrics are out there about him?

Part of the reason for thinking about metrics is that they are central to the way that universities are ranked nowadays, whether that is national rankings like Maclean’s magazine, or global rankings like Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings, or Academic World University Rankings. Such rankings are a fact of life for any university researcher and for any university, and these rankings are configured – in one way or another – by metrics including citations counts.

Metrics matter for professorial careers, since they can and do play a major role in hiring and promotion decisions. It’s worthwhile then, thought Birch, to try and understand his own personal citation score and its relationship to his academic career and to the University’s reputation. So, he decided to look at his citation performance and achievements in more depth.

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