Metrics & Impact Core (MIC)
The Metrics & Impact Core (MIC) at Galter Library helps Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers tell the story of their science to peers, funders, policymakers, and the public. Through our expertise in bibliometrics, citation analysis, and data visualization, our team provides meaningful interpretation of research metrics for both individuals and groups to understand and communicate the impact of their scholarship.
Who We Support
We work with researchers and teams across Feinberg including faculty, clinicians, research groups, departments, centers, and administrators.
Request a Report
MIC produces customized reports for Feinberg research groups, departments, and individual investigators. Preparation time is typically 2 weeks. To help us plan and deliver your report on time, please submit each request separately and as early as possible.
Reports & Services
Self-Service Reports
- Used to: Generate faculty publication lists within your department for internal tracking and reviews
- What you get: Excel dataset exported from Symplectic Elements with publication details
Individual Reports
- Used to: Summarize an individual’s publication impact for promotion and tenure, grants, or reporting.
- What you get: Narrative impact summary with supporting metrics and an Excel dataset.
- Used to: Strengthen an NIH biosketch with impact metrics and suggested language.
- What you get: Word document with narrative recommendations and an Excel dataset.
Group Reports
- Used to: Understand publication output, impact, and topic trends for a department, center, institute, or program.
- What you get: PDF report with key metrics, visualizations, and an Excel dataset.
- Used to: Present research productivity at retreats, reviews, or leadership meetings.
- What you get: PowerPoint slides and an Excel dataset.
- Used to: Identify collaboration patterns among members of a center, department, or grant program.
- What you get: Excel dataset mapping co-authorship and collaboration activity.
- Used to: Visualize collaboration patterns or research topic connections for grant or program presentations.
- What you get: PowerPoint slides with collaboration and topic network visualizations.
- Used to: Strengthen grant applications and renewals through publication impact benchmarking.
- What you get: Narrative impact statements with supporting metrics and an Excel dataset.
- Used to: Evaluate trainee publication output across a program, department, or training grant.
- What you get: PDF report with visualizations and an Excel dataset.
- Used to: Identify potential collaborators or experts for interdisciplinary or emerging research areas.
- What you get: Excel dataset of researchers, institutions, and research activity within a defined topic area.
- Used to: Identify candidates within a targeted research area for recruitment or strategic hiring.
- What you get: Excel dataset with publication metrics, affiliations, and specialization details.
Not sure what type of analysis you need?
Many requests begin with a short consultation. We can help determine the most useful metrics, visualizations and analyses for your goals. Contact ghsl-mic@listserv.it.northwestern.edu.
How Researchers Use MIC Services
- Demonstrate research impact for promotion and tenure
- Strengthen grant applications and renewals
- Highlight influential publications and emerging research areas
- Map collaboration networks and institutional partnerships
- Evaluate research programs, departments, and centers
- Support NIH biosketch development
- Track how research is discussed beyond academia
Tools and Data Sources
- Scopus
Abstract and citation database for tracking, analyzing, and visualizing research - Web of Science
Citation database and analytics platform for scholarly literature, benchmarking, and citation tracking - NIH iCite
Bibliometric benchmarking tool for assessing the influence of PubMed-indexed research - Altmetric
Platform for tracking online attention to research across news, policy, social media, and other sources
- VOSviewer
Visualization platform for collaboration, citation, and topic mapping - Prism
Feinberg's open access institutional repository of research and scholarly output - Northwestern Elements
Publication tracking system for Feinberg scholarly outputs and activities - ORCID
Global registry of persistent researcher identifiers connecting researchers to their scholarly work
Key Resources: Metrics Guide | Altmetrics Guide | Dissemination Guide
Questions? Contact MIC