Author Impact Metrics in Communication Sciences and Disorder Research

Abstract

Purpose The purpose was to examine author-level impact metrics for faculty in the communication sciences and disorder research field across a variety of databases. Method Author-level impact metrics were collected for faculty from 257 accredited universities in the United States and Canada. Three databases (i.e., Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Scopus) were utilized. Results Faculty expertise was in audiology (24.4%; n = 490) and speech-language pathology (75.6%; n = 1,520). Women comprised 68.1% of faculty, and men comprised 31.9% of faculty. The percentage of faculty in the field of communication sciences and disorders identified in each database was 10.5% ( n = 212), 44.0% ( n = 885), and 84.4% ( n = 1,696) for Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Scopus, respectively. In general, author-level impact metrics were positively skewed. Metric values increased significantly with increasing academic rank ( p < .05), were greater for men versus women ( p < .05), and were greater for those in audiology versus speech-language pathology ( p < .05). There were statistically significant positive correlations between all author-level metrics ( p < .01). Conclusions These author-level metrics may serve as a benchmark for scholarly production of those in the field of communication sciences and disorders and may assist with professional identity management, tenure and promotion review, grant applications, and employment.