Research impact within the international arid literature: an Australian perspective based on network theory

While research-article impact is routinely judged by citation counts, there is recognition that a much boarder view is needed to better judge their true values. This paper applies a developing framework based on the application of network theory, where the network consists of journal articles on arid-systems research which are listed on ISI Web-of-Science. Keywords were used to identify articles related to arid-systems research. Linkages between articles were defined by citations, and we bound our analysis by focusing on how the Australian subsample contributes to the international arid-systems literature. The analysis showed that impact based how on articles contribute structurally to the flow of knowledge within the literature offers an alternative metric to citation counts. The analysis also presented a partitioned view of the Australian-arid literature. This showed that there exists some citation-based structure within the literature, and we showed this structure better describes the literature than a partition based on which journals articles are published in. What this paper most contributes, is a discussion about the true value of our research, and how we may strategise to seek impact in more meaningful ways than merely being cited.