2 You Know More Than You Think At this point you may feel overwhelmed or intimidated, but actually you know a lot more than you think. You can build on your existing research skills to navigate the scholarly metrics maze. You’ve probably interacted with these metrics tools before, so keep in mind you will be applying the now “second-nature” research skills you’ve acquired in your profession for a new purpose. In order to answer the questions “How many times has my work been cited?” “What is the best journal for my research?” or “Is this journal rank- ing effective?” you will use traditional skills in a new context. In fact, you’ve probably already found item-level metrics and used journal selection skills regularly. In this chapter, we will have specific sections for librarians and researchers and guidance for building on existing skill sets. FINDING CITATIONS Call Out: Librarians Don’t confuse a lack of confidence with lack of skills (Howie & Kara, 2020). We’re willing to bet most of you have taught your students the “cita- tions chaining” research strategy so, you’ve found item-level metrics. Your work requires you to apply metrics as well as engage with scholarly data- bases on a daily basis (Ye, 2019). Therefore, it is highly likely you use one, and are familiar with more, of the bibliometric analysis tools (Ball & Tunger, 2006). You employ your skills to help people find information across disci- plines and in fields you never studied. Librarians constantly apply their skill sets to new situations scholarly metrics is just another piece of the scholarly research pie you’re working in, which makes you the perfect partner to help
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