Dear Aloysius,

Most of the researchers extend the horizon of our know knowledge. So I feel that a researcher should go through the relevant publications first and then cite them in his publication together his/her own findings.

The researcher might overlook some of the earlier publications but that is not desirable.

Further, I feel that it is a serious offense to suppress facts and figures published earlier and claim his/her findings to be the first of its kind!

Happy New Year Year.

Subir.

Professor Sequeira,

If you are asking if the number of citations, or what journal our scholarly work is published in, affects the direction of current and future areas that we work on, I have wondered about this question too. I happen to be reading a few books right now on scholarly metrics, citation analysis, bibliometrics, research evaluation, altmetrics, and measuring scholarly impact. It seems that a lot the authors write about the technical aspects, benefits and criticisms of the various systems, and  new ways to measure research impact. Many conclude that high impact journal citations are naturally sought by researchers to assist with seeking funding, promotion and so on.  But my question, and I think yours too, is whether a citation notification (for example an automated message from ResearchGate or Google Scholar), or looking at the citation counts online of various works we completed, affects the choices we make in regard to new or additional topics.  My opinion is that it probably varies depending on the academic discipline, career stage of the researcher, and personality type. I admit that  there have been occasions when I noticed someone cited or read a piece that I wrote awhile ago on certain topic and then it made me think about revisiting or updating my work. But I suspect that many people are self-directed and/or influenced more by their own curiosity, their organization's scholarly expectations, peers, mentors, coauthors, and/or funding agencies, than by citation counts or impact measures. But this could be an interesting research topic itself. I wonder if a study such as this has already been done? I'm looking forward to following this question on this discussion and reading what other people think. Thank you for starting this topic. Regards, JA

http://www.asis.org/Bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=101

Article Research type can affect citation rate

Book Measuring Scholarly Impact: Methods and Practice

Book Meaningful Metrics: A 21st Century Librarian's Guide to Bibl...

I think, the citation count is very important for academic work.

In all types of scholarly and research writing it is necessary to document the source works that underpin particular concepts, positions, propositions and arguments with citations. These citations serve a number of purposes: 

1. Help readers identify and relocate the source work.

2. Readers often want to relocate a work you have cited, either to verify the information, or to learn more about issues and topics addressed by the work. 

3. Provide evidence that the position is well-researched.

4. Give credit to the author of providing information, an original concept or theory presented.

5. Other institutes are also working on the topic

Scholarly papers are peer reviewed and are verified for accuracy, so citing something of known truth to make an argument, rebuttal, or a point is of extreme use. If I were to publish another work in progress here, and used absolutely no scholarly reference the paper would have no merit, as the information I give would be hearsay, unless backed up by peer reviewed citation or paraphrase. So yes, it has a profound impact on myself, as times I have found it can change my perspective or theory completely.

Thanks a lot for enlightening me on your views about how citations influence the Researcher . Look forward to hear more and interact with you.

Aloysius 

Yes!

Yes. It shows how the work is useful or guided for other researchers.

It's a form of recognition. A popular view is that citations are a form of 'currency', or one could see it as stock. If one had something published and it was later refuted due to stronger evidence to the contrary (or maybe even a lack of reproducibility), that paper's stock is going to 'take a hit', as it were, depending on why it was refuted. If it was because of methods that did not exist before, then that stock won't take too much of a hit. On the other hand, if that work was refuted due to poor, maybe unethical or maybe even illegal methods, that paper's stock, maybe even the researchers themselves, take a massive hit, akin to a company listed on the stock market "crashing". 

http://www.webofstories.com/play/eugene.garfield/78;jsessionid=A7EE3DD1FFC0D9C18D2FC996D3D77654

http://web.grinnell.edu/Dean/Tutorial/EUS/IC.pdf

Do you feel citations have an impact on the researcher ?

Yes it will have impact on the following manner:

Impact to the researcher (the name & work being cited in others' articles / theses / books etc.):

Impact to other researchers that perform the citation:

It is acknowledgement that other researchers are looking on your data

It should represent an acknoledgment of the Author expertise and/or his/her importance within the scientific community.

actually citation is the impact of any work. it is the criteria that effect the journal repute. it proof that your research work is wrathful, reproducible  and useful for other. 

Defenitley, when a researcher sites the work of another researcher this means that the latter came up with a valuable information that was lacking or that asserts certain assumptions. But that doesnt mean that the uncited work is not valuable, maybe its more valuable but the field is really unique and there is not a lot of experts in it.