How is a publication record evaluated or judged?

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There are many factors to take into account when looking at an individual’s publication record, such as:

a) the authorship order,

b) the number of publications,

c) the prestige of the journals in which the studies are published,

d) the prestige of the other authors on the paper, and

e) the quality of the research (if this can be discerned from the title/topic of the article)

f) the type of research (empirical, review, theory, applied, etc)

While there are undoubtedly many different ways to judge the entirety of an individual’s publication record, there is a general heuristic that most people look for:

1) First author in journal considered the best in your field (e.g., JPSP for Social/Personality researchers).

2) First authorships (number of first authorships and quality/prestige of those journals)

3) Numerosity (total number of publications and quality/prestige of those journals)