The main objective of the “*metrics” project is to provide a deeper understanding of alternative indicators for measuring research performance. In addition to traditional forms for measuring research-output (in particular publications and citations) various new potential indicators have emerged. These include, amongst others, references of scientific publications shared by users on various online platforms, for example: tweets that contain a DOI, collections of literature in social bookmarking platforms, references in Wikipedia, and many more. However, in most cases it is unclear to what extent these new indicators are being used and how valid and representative they are. 

The project therefore asks questions such as: What is the quality of different types of data used for alternative indicators? How valid and reliable are these indicators? How are the indicators perceived and seen by researchers and other stakeholders such as librarians, funding agencies etc.? To what extent are these metrics capable of mapping specific differences across disciplines?

Within GESIS the project is co-ordinated by Katrin Weller and Markus Strohmaier from the Computational Social Science department. Their work is done in direct collaboration with the following project partners: Verbundzentrale des GBV, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen and the ZBW Leibniz-Informationzentrum Wirtschaft.