Publish Your Research, Measure Its Impact

Citation is pivotal to research success, and influences your decision about where to publish. The significance of research is measured by how often it is cited, and where. Analysing publication data is a field of research in itself (bibliometrics).

Some issues around citation:

• An article that is cited many times is not necessarily more important or better than another less-cited article
• Many researchers cite their own research (self-citation). Some metrics filter out self-citations.
• Disciplines have different patterns of citation
  • molecular biology has a fast citation time - an article can be published and cited many times within 2 years, and the content can be quickly superseded
  • history has a slow citation time, with fewer citations in each article, so articles may take many years to build up multiple citations

A paper in an influential journal is more valuable to you than several publications in less prestigious journals. Always aim to submit your research to the most highly regarded journals in your field.

Further information on bibliometrics can be found in the Research Metrics guide.