Table 4.

Examples of research measurement approaches.

Data Source/Tool	Description and Benefits
Balanced Scorecard	Mostly used for quantitative performance measurement. Provides the capability to maintain big-picture long-term organizational success by integrating performances across domains and research lifecycles. It also helps to align research metrics with strategic objectives
Bibliometric Analysis	A range of techniques for assessing quantity, dissemination and content of publications and patents uses quantitative analysis to measure patterns of publications and citations. Bibliometric analysis is one of the important tools and processes used to measure research outputs such as publications and citations. It uses one or a combination of publication and citation tracking databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar to generate measures. Understanding the various types of bibliometric measures and their limitations helps to identify the appropriate ones. Bibliometrics are most useful when employed in conjunction with other measures to assess the categorical or non-comparative research outputs and impact
Case Studies	Can be used in a variety of ways; flexible enough to capture a wide variety of impacts, including the unexpected, and can provide the full context around a piece of research, researcher, or impact
Data Mining	Allows access to and understanding of existing data sets; uses algorithms to find correlations and patterns and present them in a meaningful format, reducing complexity without losing information
Institutional databases and systems	Standalone or integrated Internal database systems or applications for tracking, collecting, analyzing, and reporting research data
Interviews	Used to obtain supplemental information on areas of interest, generally to access personal perspectives on a topic, or more detailed contextual information. The participants may include PIs, staff, students, alumni, etc.
Labor Market/Economic Analysis	Provides labor and economic data to measure socio-economic returns of research
Peer Review	Review by peers, typically other academics in the same or a similar field, of outputs of research; rationale that subject experts are uniquely qualified to assess the quality of the work of others
Review of documents	Review of existing internal/external administrative or technical documents, guidelines, reports, or archives
Surveys	Provide a broad overview of the current status of a particular program or body of research; widely used in research evaluation to provide comparable data across a range of researchers and/or grants which are easy to analyze. The participants may include PI, staff, alumni, etc.