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Citation Analysis: Tools for finding who's citing you and calculating journal impact

Citation analysis plays a pivotal role in faculty tenure, promotion and hiring decisions in academic institutions.

The Citation Analysis page will cover the following topics:

PART 1:  The tools that generate citation analysis: Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus 

PART 2:  The impact tools that utilize the metrics of citation analysis: Publish or Perish (PoP); Journal Citation Reports (JCR);    SJR Indicator; Altmetrics.

PART 3:  Predatory Publishing and Bogus Impact Factors

PART 4: Journal Verification Resources like ULRICH'S WEB

Part 1: Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine that indexes a large variety of peer-reviewed literature, like Web of Science and Scopus; however, Google Scholar is more comprehensive because it includes:

  • Books, dissertations, patents, technical reports, government reports, working papers and white papers which Web of Science and Scopus do not.  

If the article has been cited by others, a link reading “cited by” will be part of the Google Scholar record. Clicking on that link will take you to the list of articles that cited the scholarly item.  

Google Scholar searching is generally easier and faster than either Web of Science or Scopus. We strongly recommend creating a Google Scholar profile (see link below). You can also search Google Scholar results using the software Publish or Perish.

  • Publish or Perish (PoP) analyzes Google Scholar data by using the following metrics: h-index, g-index, hc-index and the hI-index. The Publish or Perish software is free and is provided by the scholar Dr. Anne-Wil Harzing. See link below.

Part 1: Web of Science

Web of Science is a citation analysis database of peer-reviewed literature owned by ThomsonISI and is composed of the following indexes:

  • Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. It is the original and first citation research source and along with Google Scholar is considered to be the most comprehensive. 

It is important to remember that when Web of Science counts citations, it is only counting citations from a set of roughly 7,500 primarily English-language journals indexed by ThomsonISI. 

  • Citation data from books, conference proceedings, dissertation & theses, patents and technical reports ARE NOT INCLUDED in this database.
  • Science is much better covered in their journal literature rather than history and some subjects are not covered evenly by date.
  •  Science journals are covered much farther back in time than are the journals in the arts, engineering, humanities, and social sciences. 
  • Business and Education is poorly covered. Pace Library does not have access to this database. 

Part 1: Scopus

Scopus is a citation analysis database of peer-reviewed literature owned by Elsevier and covers the following disciplines:

  • Science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities. 

When Scopus counts citations, it is only counting citations from articles indexed in the Scopus database.

It is important to remember that Scopus was only released in 2004 and citation tracking is only available for articles published between 1996 and the present.  

  • Not considered especially strong in physics, astronomy, math, sociology, philosophy, theology, arts and literature. 
  • Like Web of Science, citation data from books, conference proceedings, dissertation & theses, patents and technical reports are not included in this database. Pace Library does not have access to this database.