Citation metrics are a quantitative indicator of the reach of a publication.
Other Resources
| Metric Name | Description | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Citation count | Number of citations to a publication by other publications. |
Dimensions (free version) Google Scholar (freely available) |
| Article downloads | The number of times the full-text of an article has been downloaded from a platform. The definition of a download may vary across platforms |
QUT ePrints (if you've uploaded the full-text of your publication) Publishers websites |
| Article views | The number of times an article has been viewed on a platform. The definition of a view might vary across platforms |
Publisher websites |
| Field-Weighted Citation Impact* | Compares the number of citations received by a publication in the year of publication, plus the following three years, to the average number of citations received by similar publications (publication type, year, and subject area) in the year of publication and following three years. The world average (the word being the Scopus database) is 1.00. A Field-Weighted Citation Impact greater than 1.00 indicates the publication has received more citations than expected according to the global average of similar publications. For example, a Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 1.55 indicates the publication has been cited 55% more than the global average. | |
| Category Normalized Citation Impact* | The Category Normalized Citation Impact of a document is calculated by dividing the actual count of citing items by the expected citation rate for documents with the same document type, year of publication and subject area. When a document is assigned to more than one subject area an average of the ratios of the actual to expected citations is used. It allows comparisons between entities of different sizes and different subject mixes. A CNCI value of one represents performance at par with world average, values above one are considered above average, and values below one are considered below average. A CNCI value of two is considered twice the world average. | InCites |
*Normalised metric
| Metric | Description | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Citation count | The number of citations to the author's publications. The number will vary across platforms. | |
| Citations per publication | The average number of citations received per publication. This is calculated by dividing author's citation count by the number of publications. As a mean average, it can be skewed by highly cited publications. | |
| h-index | Intended to be a measure of productivity and impact. An author has an h-index of X if X of their papers has received at least X citations. For example of a researcher with an h-index of 10 has 10 papers that have received at least 10 citations. | |
| Field-Weighted Citation Impact* | Compares the number of citations received by a publication in the year of publication, plus the following three years, to the average number of citations received by similar publications (publication type, year, and subject area) in the year of publication and following three years. The world average (the word being the Scopus database) is 1.00. A Field-Weighted Citation Impact greater than 1.00 indicates the publication has received more citations than expected according to the global average of similar publications. The Field-Weighted Citation Impact of a small set of publications can be skewed by a highly cited publication. | SciVal |
| Category Normalized Citation Impact | The Category Normalized Citation Impact of a document is calculated by dividing the actual count of citing items by the expected citation rate for documents with the same document type, year of publication and subject area. When a document is assigned to more than one subject area an average of the ratios of the actual to expected citations is used. It allows comparisons between entities of different sizes and different subject mixes. A CNCI value of one represents performance at par with world average, values above one are considered above average, and values below one are considered below average. | InCites |
*Normalised metric
The below table lists a selection of journal-level metrics, a brief description and how to access them.
| Metric | Description | Where to find |
|---|---|---|
| Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) | Calculated using a methodology similar to the Google PageRank. It weights the value of a citation depending on the field, quality and reputation of the journal that the citation comes from, so that “all citations are not equal”. Calculated using Scopus data. |
Scimago (Scimago Lab) Scopus (Elsevier) |
| Journal Impact Factor (JIF) | Number of citations within one year to items published in the last two years. This metric is also available excluding journal self-cites and as a five-year impact factor. Calculated using Web of Science data. |
(Clarivate Analytics) |
| Journal Citation Impact (JCI) | ||
| CiteScore | Calculated by dividing the number of citations received by a journal in a calendar year, by the number of documents published by the journal in the preceding three years. Calculated using Scopus data. | Scopus (Elsevier) |
| Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) | The number of citations received in the present year by papers published in the previous three years, divided by the total number of papers in the past three years. To normalise for differences in citation behaviour between fields, the value of a citation is determined by the number of references in the citing articles reference list. Calculated using Scopus data | Scopus (Elsevier) |
| Eigenfactor Score | Based on the number of citations to articles from the past five years in the JCR year, taking into account which journals those citations have come from and adjusting for differences in citation patterns across disciplines. Calculated using Web of Science data. | Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics) |
| h-index | Indicates the number of articles (h) that have been cited least (h) number of times. e.g. A journal with an h-index of 400 has published 400 articles that have been cited at least 400 times each. | Scimago (Scimago Lab) |
| Article Influence Score | Calculated by dividing the Eigenfactor score of the journal by the number of articles published. It tells the average impact of an article published in a journal from a five year period after the publication of the article. Calculated using Web of Science data. | Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics) |
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