Category: Article Level
Definition: Citation count is the number of times an article is cited in other bodies of literature.
Use Case: Citation count allows you to go beyond a number and describe why and where important ideas are spread from a researcher's original work to subsequent citing works.
Location: Citation databases including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and Dimensions, and the citation tool iCite.
Field Normalized? No
Caveats:
- Inconsistent when you compare it from database to database.
- Citations are impacted by the age of the paper.
- Difficult to track citations to unpublished articles such as preprints or white papers.
Sample Statement: The article "Managing COVID-19 in Surgical Systems," which was co-authored by Dr. Gawande, has 235 citations (Scopus).
What that means: There are 235 publications that have used this paper in their reference list since the paper was published in 2020.
