Sole reliance on citation data provides an incomplete understanding of research. Although citation analysis may be simple to apply, it should be used with caution to avoid it coming under disrepute through uncritical use. Ideally, citation analysis should be performed to supplement, not replace, a robust system of expert review to determine the actual quality and impact of published research.

1. Using citation analysis to measure
research impact
Helping you get published

2. The landscape of science and research is rapidly evolving. Gone
are the days when all members of a university department would
celebrate the successful publication of a colleague’s
paper.1
Earlier, scientists would simply consider the number of
papers they had published as a measure of their academic
standing. Today, the focus is increasingly shifting from whether a
researcher has published a paper to where he/she has published it
and the impact that piece of research has on the scientific
community and the world at large.2
How can you measure the quality of a research paper? More
importantly, how can you determine whether your research is
making an impact and is considered important? An objective way
is through citation analysis.
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

3. Using citation analysis to measure research impact
Citation analysis is defined as the evaluation
and interpretation of the citations received
by articles, scientists, universities, countries,
and other aggregates of scientific activity,
used as a measure of scientific influence and
productivity.3

4. Why count citations in the first place?
The list of references directing readers to prior relevant research is
considered a fundamental part of any research paper.3
A reference
or citation is a form of acknowledgment that one research paper
gives to another. Research is additive—scientists build on past
work to discover new knowledge. To identify gaps in existing
research and choose a research topic, researchers read the
relevant published research and use this existing material as a
foundation for arguments made in their own research papers.
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

5. Using citation analysis to measure research impact
1.To direct readers to an authentic source of relevant information
2.To help other researchers trace the genealogy of your ideas
3.To acknowledge pioneers and peers
4.To direct readers to previously used methods, and equipment
5.To criticize or correct previous work
6.To substantiate your claims and arguments with evidence
7.To show that you have considered various opinions in framing your arguments
8.To highlight the originality of your work in the context of previous work
9.To guide other researchers in their work
10.To build your credibility as an author
11.Finally, because not citing sources can amount to plagiarism4
11 reasons to cite previous work

6. Using citation analysis to measure research impact
Citation analyses can be grouped according to some broad types based on who/what is
being evaluated.

7. What are the various citation-based metrics?
Ranking journals: Journals are ranked by counting the number of
times their papers are cited in other journals. Journal-level metrics
are generally meant to serve as an indicator of journal prestige.
The most well known of these is the journal impact factor, from
Journal Citation Reports®
(a product of Thomson Reuters). The
journal impact factor is calculated as the average number of
citations all articles in a journal receive over a specific period of
time.5
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

8. What are the various citation-based metrics?
Ranking researchers: Various citation metrics are now used for
this purpose. Researchers are ranked by counting the number of
times their individual papers are cited in other published studies.
These metrics are also used to evaluate researchers for hiring,
tenure, and grant decisions. A researcher-level metric that is
gaining popularity is the h index,6
which is calculated by
considering a combination of the number of papers published by a
researcher and the number of citations these papers have
received.
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

9. What are the various citation-based metrics?
Ranking articles: Article-level citation counts may provide an
accurate evaluation of the quality and impact of a specific piece of
work, regardless of the author. Unfortunately though, such
metrics are rarely considered because obtaining these data is
tedious and time-consuming.7
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

10. What are the various citation-based metrics?
Ranking universities and countries: There are databases that rank
universities and countries by considering their overall research
output through criteria such as citable documents, citations per
document, and total citations. These metrics help determine
which universities and countries have the most and/or best
scientific output. For example, Scimago Research Group
(http://www.scimago.es/ ) releases annual reports of institution-
and country-wise rankings.
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

11. How can citation analysis help you?
Researchers today are faced with increasing pressure to get
published. Academic departments are expected to meet specific
levels of publication output. Clearly, there is a lot at stake in the
assessment of research quality for both individuals and
institutions. Given this, governments, funding agencies, and
tenure and promotion committees are looking toward simple and
objective methods to assess increasing research volumes in the
least possible time. To this end, they are turning more and more
to citation analysis for objective parameters of impact
assessment.
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

12. Using citation analysis to measure research impact
Citation analysis helps researchers to
•understand the reach of their research
•identify patterns in the way their work is used
•benchmark themselves against their peers
•lend credibility to their resumes when applying for
grants and promotions
•set objective targets for themselves and their
publications

13. Pitfalls of citation analysis
When using citation analysis, it is important to bear in mind some of its limitations3,7
:
It overlooks the disparity in discipline-wise citation rates, that is, the fact that citation
patterns differ among disciplines and over time.
It ignores the fact that certain manuscript types such as letters and case reports offer
inadequate scope for citation and typically have short reference lists.
The sentiment of the citation is not considered; that is a negative citation (one used to
refute a prior claim) is given as much merit as a positive citation (one used to further the
claim being made). So even a paper that has been cited simply to discredit it can work to
the author’s advantage in citation analysis.
It does not account for author contribution on papers with multiple authors: such
citations are as meritorious as those to single-author papers. Citation analysis attributes
equal importance to all authors of a paper, regardless of their individual contribution.
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

14. Conclusion:-
Thus, sole reliance on citation data provides an incomplete understanding of research.
Although citation analysis may be simple to apply, it should be used with caution to avoid it
coming under disrepute through uncritical use.3
Ideally, citation analysis should be
performed to supplement, not replace, a robust system of expert review to determine the
actual quality and impact of published research.8
Using citation analysis to measure research impact

15. Using citation analysis to measure research impact
Bibliography
1.Dodson MV (2008). Research paper citation record keeping: It is not for wimps. Journal of Animal
Science, 86: 2795-2796.
2.Thomson Reuters. History of citation indexing. Essay in Free Scientific Resources.
[http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/free/essays/history_of_citation_indexing/]
3.Smith L (1981). Citation analysis. Library Trends, 30: 83-106.
4.Garfield E. Citation indexing-Its Theory and Application in Science, Technology, and Humanities. New
York: Wiley, 1979.
5.Garfield E (2006). The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. The Journal of the American
Medical Association, 295: 90-93.
6.Hirsch JE (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences USA, 102: 16569-16573.
7.Neylon C and Wu S (2009). Article-level metrics and the evolution of scientific impact. PLoS Biology, 7:
1-6.
8.Moed HF (2007) The future of research evaluation rests with an intelligent combination of advanced
metrics and transparent peer review. Science and Public Policy, 34: 575-583.

16. Connect
http://www.facebook.com/Editage
http://www.twitter.com/Editage
http://www.linkedin.com/company/cactus-communications