As a researcher you need to publish but it is better to publish less material that is of a higher quality than a whole bunch of papers that nobody reads. Also, remember in the databases that track citations in journals, the percentage of your material that is never cited will affect your profile. So adopt Publish and Be Cited as your mantra. Also remember generation high quality datasets are becoming increasingly important and datasets can accrue citations also.
There are 2 major citation tracking databases Web of Science and Scopus and both of these have analysis tools. Here in TU Dublin we have the analysis tool for Scopus which is called Scival. You can register for a Scival account here but please remember you can only access Scival while physically in TU Dublin, there is no access from home.
When writing for publication write for editors, reviewers and intended audience. Select high quality journals if you can and comply with their instructions for authors. Be prepared to provide the underlying data as this is increasingly requested by the editors. Whatever journal you select check that they have an open access policy that allows you to put your author’s final draft up on Arrow@TU Dublin in accordance with the University’s Open Access Policy. For more information on the Open Access Policy and Plan S click here.
For more information on Open Access generally click here