Dr Andrew Plume specialises in scientometrics (the scientific qualification and analysis of science). Through accumulating a broad spectrum of data that ranges from specific primary sources such as authors and single articles to the broadest data resources generated from countries and entire subject domains, Andrew studies information flows in the scholarly literature by analysing patterns of publications and citations.

His particular interest lies in the use (and abuse) of the Impact Factor and the emergence of alternative metrics for journal evaluation. Andrew frequently presents these topics, among others, to journal editors, learned and scholarly societies, and the publishing community.

After taking his PhD in plant molecular biology from the University of Queensland (Australia), and conducting post-doctoral research at Imperial College London, Andrew joined Elsevier in 2004. He has co-authored research and review articles in the peer-reviewed literature and is a member of the editorial board of Research Trends.