Books sit awkwardly inside a research evaluation culture built for journal articles. The metrics that govern careers were designed for a different object, and the mismatch has real consequences for what gets written.
The lag problem
Journal citations accrue within eighteen months. Monograph citations peak around year five on our own list. Any evaluation window shorter than that structurally undervalues books.
What books do that articles cannot
Sustain an argument long enough to change how a reader thinks rather than what they cite. That effect is real and largely unmeasured.
Better questions than citation counts
Is the book on reading lists? Is it held by libraries outside the author country? Has it been translated? These are cruder numbers and better proxies for influence.
