BRAF (CASRAI)

Bibliometrics and Research Analytics Certification — Foundation

LevelFoundationBRABRAF (CASRAI)

Lessons

8 modules

Domains

Exam blueprint

Exam items

Per attempt

70%

Pass mark

Fixed, uncurved

Retake wait

Days

What you earn

The credential itself

Pass the examination and CASRAI issues this certificate and the post-nominal BRAF (CASRAI), signed by the Programme Director and verifiable by anyone, permanently, from the code on its face.

CASRAI Certification

Certificate of Professional Competence

This is to certify that

Dr. Amelia R. Hartley

has completed the prescribed programme of study and passed the examination in

Bibliometrics and Research Analytics — Foundation

and is admitted to the designationBRAF (CASRAI)

Verify atcasrai.org/verify/CASRAI-BRA-2026-Z7MHLK

Specimen. Issued as a signed PDF and as a machine-readable Open Badge; the holder and code shown are illustrative.

How it appears on your CV

Certifications

BRAF (CASRAI) — Bibliometrics and Research Analytics, Foundation

CASRAI·Issued Mar 2026·Credential ID CASRAI-BRA-2026-Z7MHLK

casrai.org/verify/CASRAI-BRA-2026-Z7MHLK

Every certificate is issued under the signature of Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD, Programme Director of CASRAI Certification, who sets the syllabus, blueprint and pass mark for this credential.

It certifies that its holder passed the CASRAI examination for this course on the date shown, scored against the blueprint and pass mark published on this page — and anyone can confirm it from the verification code, without an account and without contacting us.

About this credential

What it covers

Body of knowledge

Exam blueprint

The exam is assembled to these weights on every attempt. They are published before purchase because a blueprint you cannot see is not a blueprint.

Domains and weights8 domains · 3 scored items
Domain	Weight	Items
Bibliographic data sources, coverage and source selectionF1	18%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Journal-level indicators and their documented misusesF2	20%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Article-, author- and field-level indicators; normalisationF3	18%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Data cleaning, author disambiguation and identifier infrastructureF4	12%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Collaboration analysis, science mapping and altmetricsF5	8%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Benchmarking units and institutions; the ranking industryF6	8%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Reproducibility and the documented analytical workflowF7	6%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Interpretation, responsible use and communication to decision-makersF8	10%≈ 1 item	≈ 1
Total	100%	3

Item counts are approximate. Each attempt draws a fresh form to the weights above, so the exact number of items per domain varies between attempts.

Syllabus

8 modules, 8 lessons

Every lesson and every learning outcome is listed. The lesson bodies open on enrolment; nothing else about the course is withheld.

8 modules · 8 lessons

Lesson material opens once you are enrolled. The full syllabus and every learning outcome are shown here so you can judge the coverage before you pay.

Module 1
F1
1 lesson
1. Locked.What a citation is, and what research analytics is forLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - By the end, the learner can:
  - (R) Define bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics and altmetrics and state how they relate.
  - (R) Explain what a citation is as a data object and list four reasons a researcher cites that have nothing to do with quality.
  - (A) Given a claim made from a metric, state whether the metric can bear it.
  - (R) Describe the origin of the field in library collection management and explain why that origin matters to every misuse that followed.
Module 2
F2
1 lesson
1. Locked.The data sources, and what each one missesLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - (R) Name the major bibliographic data sources and state who operates each.
  - (R) Describe the difference between PubMed, MEDLINE and PMC.
  - (A) Given a research question, select a defensible source and state the coverage consequence of the choice.
  - (A) Predict the direction in which a publication count will move when the source is switched, for a given discipline.
  - (N) Explain why "we used the database we have a licence for" is a methodological statement that must be disclosed.
Module 3
F3
1 lesson
1. Locked.Journal indicators I: the exact calculationsLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - (R) State the Journal Impact Factor's numerator, denominator and window exactly.
  - (R) State CiteScore's window and the five document types that appear in both its numerator and its denominator.
  - (A) Given a table of a journal's publications and citations, compute a JIF and a CiteScore by hand and explain why they differ.
  - (N) Explain the JIF's numerator/denominator asymmetry and its consequence.
  - (R) Describe SJR and Eigenfactor as prestige-weighted measures and state what "size-dependent" means for Eigenfactor.
  - (A) Explain what SNIP normalises on, and why it needs no subject category.
Module 4
F4
1 lesson
1. Locked.Journal indicators II: quartiles, categories, and misuseLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - (R) State how JCR quartiles are constructed.
  - (N) Explain how a journal can be Q1 in one system and Q2 in another, and identify which system a quartile claim came from.
  - (A) Determine whether a proposed comparison between two journals is legitimate.
  - (N) Explain why a journal-level indicator cannot be attributed to an individual article, using the shape of the underlying distribution.
Module 5
F5
1 lesson
1. Locked.Article- and author-level indicatorsLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - (R) Define the h-index and the i10-index exactly.
  - (A) Compute an h-index and an i10-index by hand from a citation distribution.
  - (N) State two structural properties of the h-index — that it cannot decrease and that it is bounded by publication count — and derive their consequences.
  - (R) Name the principal h-index variants and what each attempts to correct.
  - (N) Explain why author-level metrics are the most contested class of indicator.
Module 6
F6
1 lesson
1. Locked.Normalisation: why 1.0 means world averageLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - (R) Explain what field normalisation does and name the three dimensions it normalises on.
  - (A) Interpret a field-normalised value correctly, including a value below 1.
  - (N) Explain why a normalised value computed over a small publication set should not be reported.
  - (R) Distinguish percentile-based from ratio-based approaches.
  - (A) Distinguish citing-side from cited-side normalisation using SNIP as the worked example.
Module 7
F7
1 lesson
1. Locked.Names, affiliations and why the data is dirtyLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - (R) Explain why bibliographic metadata is unreliable for counting purposes.
  - (A) Identify name-variant, transliteration and affiliation problems in a supplied record set.
  - (N) Distinguish splitting from merging and explain which does more damage to an author-level report.
  - (R) State what an ORCID iD and a ROR identifier each identify.
Module 8
F8
1 lesson
1. Locked.Reading an analysis critically: mapping, altmetrics, reproducibility, refusalLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - (R) Distinguish co-citation from bibliographic coupling.
  - (N) State three ways a science map can mislead.
  - (A) Interpret altmetric data without inferring impact from attention.
  - (R) List what must be recorded for a bibliometric analysis to be reproducible.
  - (A) Identify an improper metric request and propose a defensible alternative.

Assessment

How the exam works

The exam is closed-book and multiple choice. Each attempt draws a fresh form to the domain weights above, so no two attempts are the same paper and no answer key circulates. The pass mark is 70% and is fixed — there is no curve, no quota and no adjustment by cohort.

Scoring is immediate. You are shown your overall result and, for every item, the option you chose, the correct option and the reasoning behind it — whether you passed or not. A failed attempt may be retaken after 90 days. The wait exists so a retake is a second attempt at the material rather than a second attempt at remembering the paper.

Forms are assembled to the blueprint above or not at all: where a domain cannot yet be sampled to that standard, the exam declines to start rather than issue an unbalanced paper. Your material and progress are never affected, and there is no time limit on when you sit.

Passing candidates are issued a certificate with a verification code. Anyone can check that code on our public verification page without an account and without contacting us.

Certifying authority

Signed by Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD

CASRAI’s certification programme is academically and medically directed by Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD, Programme Director, who sets the syllabus and blueprint for this credential and signs every certificate issued under it.

CASRAI has maintained the terminology and reporting standards of research administration for over a decade. It assumed leadership of the CRediT contributor-roles taxonomy in 2014 and carried it through to adoption as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, now in use by publishers, funders and institutions worldwide. This examination is drawn from that body of work.

What the credential certifies: that its holder passed the CASRAI examination for this course on the date shown, scored against the blueprint and pass mark published above — verifiable by anyone, permanently, from the code on its face.

Before you buy

The syllabus, learning outcomes, exam blueprint, pass mark and retake policy on this page are the complete specification of this credential. Everything that determines whether you pass is published here before you pay.

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