2. What is it?
• Citation analysis is a widely accepted measure of the
impact or influence of your research
• It is based on the concept that the number of times you
get cited is meaningful – the more citations, the greater
the relevance
• Citation analysis tools measure the number of times your
published research has been cited by other researchers
• It is important to use more than one citation analysis tool
as no one tool measures all publications
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3. Citation Count
• Provides the number of times your publications have
been cited
• The amount of citations to a paper may not be a
reflection of the paper’s quality
• Self-citations can distort the citation count results
• Metrics are not well established in some disciplines such
as arts, humanities, social sciences & business
• The calculation also depends on the tool used
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4. h-index
• Used to qualify the impact and quantity of your research
output
• h-index is the number of papers that have been cited at
least h times
– ie. an h-index of 20 tells us that the author has
published 20 papers that been cited at least 20 times
• Your h-index will depend on the length of time you have
been publishing and on the tool used
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5. Why use it?
• Measure your personal research effectiveness
• Grant applications
• Academic promotion
• Recruitment
• Benchmarking
• Performance evaluation
• Identify potential collaborators
• Identify emerging areas of research
Image: futureatlas.com/wikimedia commons
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6. How to get started?
• Tools & metrics vary between disciplines,
particularly stronger in the Sciences
• Be aware of the limitations of each tool
and the data sources from which the
metrics are retrieved. No single tool is
comprehensive
• Negative citations are counted as valid
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7. Business, Economics & Law
• Google Scholar & Publish or Perish
• Web of Science includes:
– Social Sciences Citation Index (1955-)
– Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-)
– Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social
Sciences & Humanities (1990-)
• Scopus includes
– Social sciences, psychology, economics
• Additional tools: see Citation Analysis LibGuide
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8. Education
• Google Scholar & Publish or Perish
• Web of Science includes:
– Social Sciences Citation Index (1955-)
– Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-)
– Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social
Sciences & Humanities (1990-)
• Scopus includes:
– Social sciences, psychology
• Additional tools: see Citation Analysis LibGuide
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9. Health Sciences
• Scopus includes:
– heath sciences, social sciences, psychology
• Web of Science includes:
– Social Science Citation Index Expanded (1955-)
– Conference Proceedings Citation Index Social Science &
Humanities(1990-)
– Science Citation Index Expanded (1955-)
– Conference Proceedings Citation Index Science (1990 –
present)
• Google Scholar & Publish or Perish
• Additional tools: see Citation Analysis LibGuide
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10. Humanities & Social Sciences
• Google Scholar & Publish or Perish
• Web of Science includes:
– Social Sciences Citation Index (1955-)
– Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-)
– Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social
Sciences & Humanities (1990-)
• Scopus includes
– Social sciences, psychology
• Additional tools: see Citation Analysis LibGuide
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11. Science, Engineering & Technology
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• Web of Science includes:
– Science Citation Index Expanded (1955 to present)
– Conference Proceedings Citation Index Science (1990 –
present)
• Scopus includes
– physical sciences, life & health sciences, biological,
agricultural & environmental sciences, general sciences
• Google Scholar & Publish or Perish
• Additional tools: see Citation Analysis LibGuide
12. Main points to remember
• Don’t rely on one single tool
• Always compare ‘like with like’ ie
– Groups & individuals in the same/similar disciplines
– Groups/individuals at the same stage of their careers
– Journals in the same discipline or category
• Some disciplines rely less on publishing in journals
• Use a combination of metrics with other qualitative
information
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13. Help
• View the Citation Analysis LibGuide for
further information and instructions on how
to use the various tools
• Contact your Faculty Librarian
Attribution: Some of the content has been based on MyRI: My Research Impact (An Open Access toolkit to support bibliometrics training & awareness).
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