Author level metrics are based on the publication history of an author's scholarly work and tracks their impact in their field. This is traditionally based on the number of times that an author's articles are cited in the reference section of other researcher's papers.

The Author section of the guide discusses several different ways that are used to measure an individual author's impact, such as the h-index, g-index, and beamplots.

Another important aspect of an author's career is establishing themselves within their research community. This effort considers the many ways that researchers communicate with each other and affect the scholarly conversation. Writing original research articles, review articles, and books are fundamental to a researcher's career; however, there are additional avenues that can promote one's career, facilitate engagement with other researchers, and increase the impact of their research.