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Citation metrics

Some of the more common traditional metrics, their advantages and disadvantages are included below.

Definition	Count of the number of publications by a researcher, group or institution.
Metrics available	Total publications Total by type of publication
Where to locate	Scopus and SciVal - SciVal is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Scopus, and receives a weekly update of new data from Scopus. Web of Science and InCites - InCites is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Web of Science, and receives monthly updates of new data from Scopus. Google Scholar
Advantages	Simple to calculate and easy to understand
Take care	The terminology used for number of publications varies from database to database (ScIval uses “scholarly output”, Incites used “Web of Science documents”) Does not indicate the quality of a publication Discipline-specific differences in the number of publications produced are not considered Does not assess the contribution of an individual author, especially on publications with many authors Consideration should be given to the type of publications counted. For example, should letters and editorials be included in the count?

Definition	Counts the number of times a publication has appeared in the reference list of other publications (indexed within the same database)
Metrics available	Total citations Citations per year Citations per publication
Where to locate	Scopus and SciVal - SciVal is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Scopus, and receives a weekly update of new data from Scopus. Web of Science and InCites - InCites is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Web of Science, and receives monthly updates of new data from Scopus. Google Scholar
Advantages	Simple to calculate and easy to understand Can be applied at the author, institution, country or research fields, or journal level
Take care	The terminology used for citation count varies from database to database (ScIval uses “citation count”, Incites uses “times cited”) Ignores the total volume of research outputs Citation counts will vary depending on the database used Citation practices vary between disciplines, making it problematic to compare citation counts across disciplines Due to the above points, citation counts should only be compared within the same publication year and discipline Some publication types are more highly cited than others – e.g. review articles Self-citations can distort the total citation count across a set of publications

Definition	Calculated by dividing the number of citations for a set of publications, with the number of publications in the set
Metrics available	Average citation per publication
Where to locate	Scopus and SciVal - SciVal is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Scopus, and receives a weekly update of new data from Scopus. Web of Science and InCites - InCites is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Web of Science, and receives monthly updates of new data from Scopus. Google Scholar
Advantages	A size-independent metric Simple to calculate and easy to understand Useful when measuring the influence of sets of publications of varied sizes
Take care	The terminology used for citations per publication varies from database to database (Incites uses ‘citation impact’) Highly cited (or poorly cited) publications can skew the average Citation practices vary between disciplines, so it is problematic to compare across disciplines Should only be used to compare within the same publication year, and within the same field Self-citations can distort this metric across a set of publications.

Definition	Calculates the percentage of documents cited within a set of documents
Metrics available	Percent of document cited
Where to locate	Scopus and SciVal - SciVal is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Scopus, and receives a weekly update of new data from Scopus. Web of Science and InCites - InCites is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Web of Science, and receives monthly updates of new data from Scopus. Google Scholar
Advantages	Easy to calculate when the citation count per publication is known
Take care	Not a meaningful metric – in some disciplines having just one citation is considered very low Newer publications are less likely to be cited Does not factor in that the mean to ‘first-citation’ varies dramatically between disciplines What significance is there in a paper cited once and another not cited at all?

Definition	Number of citations received over the number of expected citations for similar documents. Shows how an article’s citation count compares to similar articles in the same discipline, age, and publication type.
Metrics available	Field weighted metric per publication Field weighted metric average across a set of publications
Where to locate	Scopus and SciVal - SciVal is a companion research analytics and benchmarking tool to Scopus, and receives a weekly update of new data from Scopus. InCites
Advantages	Because this metric is normalized it provides a better indicator of the performance of a publication Allows comparison of ‘like with like,’ so can be used to compare across disciplines Measures at the article rather than the journal level
Take care	The terminology used for field weighted metrics varies from database to database (in SciVal and Scopus it is called FWCI (Field Weighted Citation Impact), In Incites – CNCI (Category Normalized Citation Index), and in Dimensions – FCR (File Citation Ratio) This metric is based on journal-level subject classifications and may not accurately reflect output at the article level Can disadvantage both multi- and cross- disciplinary publications Highly cited (or poorly cited) publications can skew the field weighted metric when applied to a set of publications, best used with large publication sets Should not be used for recently published papers because citations take time to settle The field weighted metric will fluctuate over time (both upwards and downwards) as the database is updated with new publications SciVal stops recalculating the values of FWCI for publications older than four years, thus limiting the value of the FWCI for these publications.

Definition	Measures the extent to which publications are present in the most cited 1%, 5%, 10%, usually within a discipline.
Metrics available	Top 1%/10% citation percentiles Highly cited publications (Web of Science) Hop papers (Web of Science)
Where to locate	SciVal InCites
Advantages	Databases will usually identify a variety of top percentiles Databases such as SciVal and InCites automatically calculate highly cited publications on an annual basis
Take care	The terminology used for this metric varies from database to database (Web of Science uses “Highly Cited Papers” to identify the top 1% within an academic field, InCites uses “Documents in Top 1%” and “Documents in Top 10%”) Self-citations can distort the total citation count Should not be used for recently published papers because citations take time to settle Like field weighted metrics, the metric will change over time.

Definition	An author-level metric designed to measure an author's productivity and impact. It is calculated from the count of citations to an author' set of publications. An H-Index of 15 indicates that 15 of the author's publications have been cited at least 15 times each.
Metrics available	H-Index H5-Index G-Index M-Index i-10 With and without self-citations
Where to locate	Scopus - H-Index SciVal - H-Index, H5-Index, G-Index, M-Index. Web of Science and InCites - H-Index Google Scholar (citations) - H-Index and i-10 Publish or Perish - H-Index, G-Index, hl-norm, hl-annual, hA-index
Advantages	Benchmarking performance over time Use as evidence of the scholarly influence of an author's most cited in conjunction with other metrics
Take care	The H-Index should not be used to compare researchers across disciplines and career levels An author's H-Index will continue to grow even if they have not published any new work Favours researchers with a longer track record of publication

Definition	Identifies the position that an author's name appears in the list of authors on a publication. In many disciplines the order of author names indicates the magnitude of contribution.
Metrics available	First author Last author Corresponding author Co-author Single author
Where to locate	SciVal InCites
Advantages	Indicates the level of contribution an author makes to a publication Publications with multiple authors can indicate collaborative activity
Take care	The practice relating to the order of authorship can vary between disciplines Publications with large numbers of authors, or group authorship 'Honorary' authors who do not meet authorship criteria

Definition	Measures the extent to which a publication includes co-authors who have international, national, home institution or industry affiliations
Metrics available	Number of co-authors Institution of co-author Country of co-author Industry collaboration
Where to locate	SciVal InCites
Advantages	Showcases the extent of international collaboration that underpins research Benchmarking the average influence of publications by institution or geographic region Demonstrate the benefits of establishing and maintaining collaborations
Take care	Understanding activity in a discipline with an obvious national focus

Definition	Data relating to publications that cite another publication or set of publications, including authors, institutions and geographic regions
Metrics available	Citing authors Affiliated institutions of citing authors Countries of affiliated institutions of citing authors
Where to locate	SciVal InCites
Advantages	Measuring the national and international reach of publications Showcasing the interdisciplinary influence of research
Take care	Incorrectly attributed affiliations, including variations in institution name

Definition	Measures the quality of a journal, usually calculated from citations to articles published in the journal during a specific year range
Metrics available	Journal impact factor - quartile, subject and rank SJR rankings - quartile, subject and rank CiteScore - quartile, subject and rank H5-Index and H5-Medium
Where to locate	Scopus and SciVal - CiteScore, SNIP and SJR SJR Ranking website - SJR Web of Science, InCites and Journal Citation Reports - Journal impact factor Google Scholar Metrics - H5-Index, H5-Medium
Advantages	Comparing the relative influence of journals within a discipline
Take care	Journal quality metrics should not be used as an indicator of the quality or impact of articles or authors The journal impact factor favours the sciences, is US- and English language biased.