Skip to Main Content

Research metrics and publishing: Citation metrics

Citation metrics

Citation metrics utilise a sum of the citations an academic work has received to date from other works in the data source, and are often used for comparative evaluation.

Academic works receiving citations include articles and reviews, proceedings, book chapters, letters and more.

Citation counts

The number of citations accrued since publication is a simple measure of the engagement an output has received within the academic community. Citation counts are not a measure of quality as articles may be cited due to negative as well as positive engagement. Citation rates vary across disciplines so context is important when using citation-based measures.
Tools to use: Scopus, SciVal, Web of Science, Google Scholar

Outputs in top citation percentiles

Outputs in top percentiles show the extent to which publications have attained notable distinction by ranking among the most-cited papers in a given field. This metric is calculated to show how many articles are in the top 1%, 5%, 10% or 25% of the most cited documents. 99th percentile is high and indicates an article ranks higher than 99% of articles, i.e. it is in the top 1% globally. Outputs in top percentiles offer a quick way to benchmark groups of researchers and they should always be field weighted.
Tool to use: SciVal, InCites Essential Science Indicators, Scopus

Citation influence on policy and guidelines

Policy citations of scholarly papers

Policy citations of scholarly papers can be useful in indicating the reach, use and influence of your research beyond academia.
The types of policy documents can vary depending on the tool being used and the sources they track.. 

They can include government and organisational reports ,working papers and policy briefs from a range of international government and non government organisations.
Tools to use: Overton, Altmetric Explorer, Scopus (PlumX metrics)


Clinical Guideline citations

Clinical guideline citations of your scholarly research can document the translation of your research into clinical practice.
This can demonstrates such things as the importance and significance of your research findings in improving patient care.
Tools to use: Overton, Altmetric Explorer (search policy citations, filter by title), Scopus (PlumX metrics)