Journal article citation counts
What
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A count of the citations received by a journal article. Citations are widely regarded as key indicators of the usage and impact of the cited publication. It is based on the assumption that research publications of high quality and significance will be cited more than those of low quality and significance. In research impact measurement, citation counts can be calculated individually at the article or author level, or collectively at the journal or institution level.
Why
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To demonstrate the impact of a document through its citation by others
Applications
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Academic promotions, funding applications, job applications
Considerations
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Due to publishing timelines, it can take several years for citations to accumulate
Common tools
- Scopus
- Web of Science
- Google Scholar
How to find journal article citation counts:
1. Scopus - Citation count
- Access Scopus from the Library website
- Change the Search option to Documents, and type or copy/paste the title of the article, conference paper, or book/chapter between double quotation marks ("…"). Click Search
- View the number of citations for the document to the right of its record in the search results
- For more information, click the title of the document and navigate to the Metrics box in the right hand column
- Click View all Metrics to access further article level metrics such as Field Weighted Citation Impact, social media, news, blog, and Wikipedia mentions, and citation benchmarking.
2. Web of Science - Citation count
- Access Web of Science from the Library website
- Change the search field next to the search box from Topic to Title and type or copy/paste the title of the article, conference paper, or book/chapter between double quotation marks ("..."). Click Search
- View the number of citations for the document to the right of its record in the search results
- For more information, click the title of the document and navigate to the Citation networks box in the right hand column. A breakdown is available of which Web of Science databases the citations appear in.
Web of Science Core Collection citation counts can also be viewed with Google Scholar, see box below.
3. Google Scholar - Citation count
- Go to Google Scholar
- Type or copy/paste the title of the article, conference paper, or book/chapter between double quotation marks ("…"). Hit Enter or click the Search button
- View the number of citations for the document underneath its record in the search results. Web of Science Core Collection citations are also listed.