Benchmarking Drexel University Research

The Drexel Science and Math Librarian (Peggy Dominy) and the IST/Education Librarian (Tim Siftar) presented the poster entitled “Benchmarking the Research Impact of Drexel University through Analysis of Citations in the Scholarly Literature 1994-2004.”

The research examined the citations per article published by Drexel faculty in six disciplines over a period of ten years, as compared to citations per article of faculty at a set of benchmark technologically-oriented universities. The rate of citations showed that Drexel compares favorably to its benchmark institutions, and in all cases performs above the average for the disciplines in which it ranked above the minimum publication threshold.

The citation data for this poster came from a subset of the Thomson-ISI “Web of Science” database that is sold as a separate product called “Essential Science Indicators” to which the Library had a trial subscription.

The poster was well received and stimulated many discussions on the role citations play in measuring the intellectual output of faculty and universities as a whole. Faculty were keen to pick up the brightly colored handouts that listed the Drexel authors of the most highly cited papers in the six disciplines of Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Social Science and Clinical Medicine.

The poster itself is available at the following URL:

http://dspace.library.drexel.edu/handle/1860/445

Questions about the research or using the Web of Science? Email dominymf@drexel.edu or siftar@drexel.edu.