Book Quality & Impact

Publication and Citation Counts: Books and Chapter

Books are not traditionally indexed in databases and may be less frequently cited.

Books and book chapters are a prominent form of scholarly output, particularly in Social Sciences and Humanities. The research contribution of books and book chapters can be difficult to measure with traditional bibliometrics due to a lack of coverage in citation tracking sources such as Scopus and Web of Science.

Inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the referencing data (such as date, author and edition variations) can also make it difficult to determine accurate citation counts, when this data is obtained from sources such as Google and Google Scholar.

In most cases, you can use a combination of traditional citation metrics where available, and alternative indicators of influence in academia listed below.

Types of Book Metrics

Citation count

Who is citing your work and where?

Check the traditional citation tracking sources for citation counts on books or book chapters:

  • Google Scholar
    Locate scholarly literature, including academic books, from all broad areas of research; sourced from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies and university repositories.
  • Scopus
    Includes editorially selected books and book series at both book and chapter level.
  • Web of Science
    Includes the Book Citation Index which indexes editorially selected books in the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities.

Book reviews

Book reviews can indicate the exposure and reception of your book in either the scholarly or wider community.

Check for reviews published in scholarly journals and publications:

  • Google and Google Scholar
    Search the title of the book/chapter (enclose in quotation marks for the exact phrase). Add the word 'Review' as a keyword.
  • Library search box
    Search the title of the book/chapter (enclose in quotation marks for the exact phrase). Use the filters of the left to limit to 'Reviews' or add the word 'Review' as a keyword.
    Search a database specific to your discipline. Some databases allow you to filter to 'Reviews' or add the word 'Review' as a keyword.

Check for reviews published in news media:

Check other public websites:

Library holdings

Discover how many copies of your book are available in libraries across Australia and worldwide:

  • Trove
    Search for holdings within Australian libraries.
  • Worldcat
    Search for holdings in over 10,000 libraries worldwide.

Look for holdings in research libraries and/or libraries at prestigious universities.

Alternative measures of influence

Additional measures of attention, influence, or prestige include:

  • Appearance of book/chapter on academic reading lists
  • Prestige of publisher
  • Awards or prizes
  • Book sales / appearance on best seller lists / book club reading lists
  • Translations or adaptions
  • Reprints
  • Media attention (See: Alternative metrics)