How good are your metrics, really? Take this quiz to find out.

The metrics game

Early career researchers (ECRs) experience a lot of pressure to have good “metrics”, and mysteriously, something called “esteem”.

In a genuinely collaborative and supportive academy, it would not matter so much how many journal articles senior academics published or grants they won. What would matter would be their answers to the following questions, which would demonstrate leadership in helping others improve their own metrics.

I presented these questions, couched as An Alternative Metrics of Mattering at a Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Centre Impact and Engagement Committee’s Metric Matters seminar on 2 August, 2023, at Deakin University, Melbourne, then revised them slightly in response to comments from the audience. While particularly relevant for Australian academics, these questions something for everyone interested in career mentoring, impact and media.

So what’s your score?

The Alternative Metrics of Mattering Quiz for Senior Academics

1. How many ECRs have you encouraged and supported in setting up a Google Scholar account?
2. How many ECRs have you helped choose and set up a social media platform?
3. How many ECRs have you showed the back-end of Altmetrics, and how to extract data?
4. How many ECRs have you mentored in setting up a LinkedIn account?
5. How many ECRs have you invited on to The Conversation pitches and articles with you, to learn the ropes (before supporting them to do their own)?
6. How many ECRs have you introduced to Media Comms staff and collaborated with on writing a press release about their published research?
7. How many Australian First Nations ECRs have you cited in your most recent article?
8. How many ECRs from minority groups and the global south have you cited in your most recent article?
9. How many times have living female or diversely gendered theorists provided the main conceptual framing for research underpinning your published articles?
10. How many times have you shared your own thesis and examiners’ reports with students?
11. How many times have you shared journal article reviews (both those you have received and written) with students and ECRs?
12. How many ECRs have you shared your own metrics and publications timelines with?
13. How many ECRs have you shared your publication plan with, and helped to develop their own?
14. How often have you shared strategies for getting your own published work read and cited (not just published), eg. emailing it directly to key scholars cited with a note of thanks?
15. How often have you shared strategies for making publications search-engine optimisable?
16. How many ECRs have you helped write a conference abstract?
17. How many ECRs have you nominated for awards?
18. How many times have you connected ECRs to key people in the field, eg. editors of a planned special issue or edited book, key thinkers, professors, peers in the same area etc.?
19. How many ECRs have you encouraged to join the relevant union?
20. How many times have you shared a publication on how difficult achieving strong metrics is, on the costs and tensions of competitive, neoliberal academia, and on how to sustain a safe, collegial and healthy working environment?

Would love to hear from others who can extend this list!

Cite this: McKnight, L. (2023). How good are your metrics, really? Take this quiz to find out. ‘[Blog post]’. Retrieved from https://becomingaphdsupervisor.wordpress.com/2023/12/18/how-good-are-your-metrics-really-take-this-quiz-to-find-out/