Harnessing grey literature for impact reporting
How to see your impact with Mentions
Most impact tools measure citations—how often an author or an organization’s work is cited in other publications, usually academic journals.
But being cited in a publication is just one measure of your impact. What if one of your organization’s experts was on a government committee that produced a report? Was a speech given by your CEO acknowledged in a footnote? Perhaps your organization produced a standard, regulation, or concept definition—and this influenced another organization’s work.
Every “mention” in grey literature contributes to a more complete picture of your organization's impact. The Mentions tool extracts data from 12 million reports sourced from over 30,000 organizations around the world, empowering you with richer insights and ensuring that you're better informed about your real-world impact.
For subscribers—a dedicated Mentions page
Organizations that subscribe to a Commons gain access to a dedicated page for their institution, complete with Mentions data. Here's a step-by-step guide for navigating there:
Find your Organization page
Go to the Commons Home page.
Select "Organization" in the top navigation bar.
Enter your organization's name in the search box.
Select your organization from the result list.
Find who mentions your organization
On your organization's page, you’ll see a section called "Impact Data." It displays your total number of mentions by year. It also shows the top seven countries in which most mentions have been found. The “All Mentions” button invites you to explore further.
Find publications that mention your organization
Navigate to the "All Mentions" button (located at the top right) to access a comprehensive list of publications referencing your organization. Utilize the facets on the left-hand side to refine your search. You can explore which organizations have mentioned your institution most frequently or filter mentions by year, region, country, and other variables.
Who is your organization talking about?
Is your organization drawing on a wide range of sources? To find out, go to your organization’s page, scroll down to the Publications section at the bottom, and then click "All Publications."
Scroll down to the mentions facet and you’ll see a list of organizations mentioned by your institution. View more to explore further.
Free features for registered users
Explore Mentions using Search
Every search you do in the Commons yields a result set. The Mentions facet on the left lets you see which organizations are most mentioned within the result set. Click on an organization's name to see the mentions themselves.
Example: Imagine that you want to know how often an Organization is mentioned in publications about Ukraine and NATO?
Select Publications from the menu bar at the top.
Key in (Ukraine AND Nato) in the search box
Examine the Mention facet. This lists all the Organizations that are mentioned in the documents retrieved by your search. The count shows the number of documents in which the Organization is mentioned. Use the "View More" button to see additional organizations.
Clicking on an organization name will generate a list of all the documents in which the organization is mentioned. You can use the facets to filter this list further. Once you have refined the list to your needs, use the export tool to take away the list as a csv file or RIS file.
Follow Mentions by topic
Imagine that you want to receive alerts when an organization is mentioned in a document about education.
Find that organization's page.
Click "All Mentions" and scroll down to the Topic facet and select Education.
On the resultant page, click the "Follow" button.
Follow mentions by organization
Imagine that you only want to receive alerts when an organization is mentioned in a document published by the World Bank.
Find that organization's page.
Click "All Mentions" and scroll down to the Organization facet and select "World Bank."
On the resultant page, click the "Follow" button.
Use the same technique to receive alerts every time your organization mentions a specific other organization.
Individual users receive up to fifteen monthly searches.
