There are a number of different databases available to determine how many times an article has been cited by other articles.Does the number of citations reflect the quality or originality of the work?
If a paper receivres hundreds of citations then it can be said that in all probability the paper is an original paper or a review paper
No. Because it reflects VALUE – a quite different characteristic. Its measurement results might coincide with the results of measuring quality, but value DIFFERS from quality by its nature. A lot of people mix these properties just by carelessness, while VALUE is an objective characteristic being measured by the use level, while QUALITY is dependent on a cognizing subject, being measured by a comparison with a speculative standard a priori (not via the use level, not a posteriori!). It is subjective, conventional property, “quality lies in a metrician eyes”. Just look up my papers that I attach. (My newer ones are better, but they are in Russian :))
As for ORIGINALITY, I would not even dare to associate this property with citation level. Too brave measurement it could be, I dare say.
The number of citatios an article receivs depends on the subject as well. For example, if a mathematics article receives 20 it might be a very good article. On the other hand 20 citations to a biochemistry article may mean nothing.
The quality and originality of a published paper was decided by the referees of the journal. The citations are an indirect measure of use, it is difficult to categorize the motivations behind the citations, so, you could consider citations to a paper as indirect measure of use and a measure of paper's visibility.
Dear Amel,
Typically, in bibliometric studies, the number of articles means productivity (quantity) and the number of citations means impact (quality). However, it seems that there should be more measures to be included in calculating quality of a work; for example there are several h-type indices, several altmetric measures, etc.
I don 't believe much in the Bibliometrics essentially.
There are papers in Nature/Science never referred to and also in ordy/ poor journals
getting citations.
If a student from a high ranking college fails does not mean the college is bad.. Similarly if a student from a low ranked college does very well does not mean that the college is high ranked. Similar is the case with journals. Nature and Science are top ranking journals despite the fact that some papers are not cited. Scientists whose papers get well-cited do not complain about bibliometrics. Bibliometrics methods are objective methods for evaluation and better than other methods of evaluation.
Many would say that it reflects the IMPACT of an article - which may, or may not itself reflect quality.
A large number of citations are definitely an indicator of quality.
Citations by nature "Constitutionally complex" (Leydesdorff, 1998). It is inherently subjective, motivational messy and susceptible to abuse (Blaise Cronin, 2016). Though at macro level, Citation can be used to understand the impact of a paper, but at micro-level, it has been gamed by many researchers through self citation, citation club, image crafting, search engine optimization etc. But in a general sense when a paper received hundreds of citation, it can be thought as a good paper.
Therefore, the answer is both yes and no. and the debate will be ongoing. But till date, No other tools can measure the impact more objectively than the citation matrix.
Dear Amel,
When evaluating the quality of specific researcher, it seems that using h-family indices (h-index, g-index, hc-index, ...) give a more realistic picture; but when assessing the quality of specific research, it is better to have a look at both the journal impact factor and the article's own citations.
However much we may have disdain for the number of Citations as a metric of quality & originality of work, in my view and from my own pool of work that has been cited, I can say that it is a very reliable metric.
Уважаемые коллеги!
Показатели цитирования не всегда отражают истинную ценность научных произведений в краткосрочной и долгосрочной перспективе. Работы, подготовленные для решения текущих вопросов в кратчайшие время набирают высокие рейтинговые показатели, но после решения указанных в них вопросов - о них забывают. Фундаментальные работы, соприкасаясь со сложностью понимания, признаются в качестве важных и значимых только по истечению длительного периода времени, через одно два поколения, а иногда и после смерти автора, тогда и начинается его цитирование. Поэтому выдающихся ученых можно и нужно оценивать по их вкладу в науку, а не по индексам цитирования. Жизнь их произведений расцветает после смерти авторов. Обратите внимание на Нобелевских лауреатов.
Yes, of course. It is one of the strongest indicators of quality. Exceptions are there, which many esteemed members indicated about. But we must remember that if one article is cited many times by different authors from different areas of the world (it is true because all articles are open now and cite metrics can show and indicate about all the users in a click ), it has definitely something worth to be cited time and again.
Not necessarily. But it is a standard adopted by Scope and other index journals
Yes, it is one of the indicators. However, there are exceptions also.
I think, the number of citations...if not be tempered otherwise... are quite valuable and it definitely reflects the quality+originality of a publication.
Rabiul
Yes, in general I believe that the number of citations reflects the quality and originality of determined publication. Of course, it´s necessary to keep in account the type of the journal, its dissemination and impact factor.
To certain extent, yes.
Also, there are papers that are "in" at some period.
Some examples are papers dealing with chemistry and bioactivity of plants.
Yes, I agree, the number of citations one of the signs of quality or originality of the work.
Majeed Rashid Zaidan @of course the Originality but much for grt
applications for a new technology.
Yes, I agree, the number of citations one of the signs of quality and modernity of the work.
The number of citations is an indicator not so much of the quality of the research, but of the usefulness of the results presented to the scientific community in a given field.
Yes, yes!
Every thing when used objectively is truly
effectively but not subjectively.
Not surprising but even Science/Nature
papers at times are read but not cited.
Quite simply, much work has no takers and
some are of them are of Creative Plagiarism category!!
It's a very difficult question. Even the Noble committees sometimes consider high value scientific works for decades, before making a final decision. Eventually, world recognition of the scientific results, their value for a particular science, and importance in practice and general knowledge play the key role. Certainly, a number of citations is a very relative indicator of the value, recognition, and importance of the published results.
In some scientific fields people work several years to prepare a publication, whereas in other once people can prepare a half a dozen publications per year. Hence, comparing all scientists by a number of all citations, or repetitive number of citations per a certain amount of years (h-, h10-index) is an unfair, questionable, and unfortunately wide spread practice. One of the reasons is a simplicity, and easiness of making such indexes calculations in the Internet era. However, the value of that approach seriously defeats its purpose.
Yes, umber of citations reflects the usefulness as well as interest of researchers too for any paper getting good or high citations.
We can rephrase this question as follows: "Does any kind of measurability of scientific texts speak something about that scientific text?" The answer is always the same: Yes, that says something about that text. Yes, but what exactly some value of a measure speak about a scientific text?
Here is a question:
- Is any text valuable if it is not cited by other authors?
It is not easy to answer on this and similar questions with an answer that has some socially acceptable value. If discriminatory (invisible but always present) requirements are excluded from the scales of measurability, then the search for a generally acceptable socially impartial response is significantly complicated.
Honeshtly
D.A.Romano
Banja Luka, Bosni and Herzegovina
It is difficult to say that Citations reflect the originality of work..
But citations definitely reflect the as an indicator of the usefulness of the results presented to the scientific community in a given field.
Yes, but possibility of citing of a very original article that has not been studied by others may be lower in a short time.
Dear Sir,
definitely the no of citations shows the topic is of recent interest and a lot of work is been done. this is reflected in research citations. But self citations sometimes confuse as some times some researches vividly cite their own work which doesnot justify the quality of research.
on the contrary, some really important topics dont have many citations but really worthy enough to discuss and needs vigorous study.
Even some good research works are published in some local journals and thus lacks international visibility. In spite of having worth they dont gather more citations.
Hence Citations are important but not always a true indicator of the reseach credibility and quality of research.
Reagrds
Partha
Yes, number of citations reflect the indicator of the usefulness of the results of research.
Dear Dr. Amal
Yes, I a gree numer of citations very important for guality and originality of the article.
Warm regards
Yes and No. It depends on the debt of research conducted and the outcome of the research.
I have often thought about this issue and the fact that we now measure the quality and the importance of scientific work in different fields of science as the internet will rate a "Trending " topic/issue/or people.
A topic in science and its importance cannot be measured effectively as "Trending ". A trending topic will definitely have more citation but does not necessarily means it outweighs other topics that are not trending and therefore do not have high citations.
Of course, higher the citations show the innovativeness and novelty of the work.
The number of citations reflects that the work is pertinent to current research, well-understood, and accurate according to the paradigm of the day. Unfortunately, the highest quality or most original works may fail to be recognized for a long period of time, if ever.
Agreed with Kathleen Rosser’s view about
Number of the citations for any research paper.
It is not difficult to precise that there are different opinions in this regards. So, perhaps the most of the people are right in some aspects of their opinions. It is a question with several possible subjective answers.
No, the number of citations doesn't reflect anything about the quality of the research at all.
Of course not. some people will cite their article by themself or by their friends. however, normally good quality papers will have many citations.
I personally think that the no of citation is an indication of amount of research done in that topic. So it can suggest that more citation means the topic is a burning topic and having great interest of other research
Sometimes some pioneering study also gets more citations due to non availability of literatures to cite.
On the contrary very food research papers couldnot get much citations as they are not open access and also limitation of the journal as well..
Again in many cases self citation also increases the citation no.
Thus in nut shells we can say that higher citation doesn't necessarily indicative of good research. As very ggod topics have lesser citations as well..
Regards
Dr. PARTHA
So in nu
The number of citations is the most reasonable and cogent way to evaluate the impact of a research.
The number of citations is the most reasonable and cogent way to evaluate the impact of a publication. There's no other better way to evaluate the quality of a publication than its impact. Researchers are unlikely to cite poor quality research publications.
A high quality research publication will attract more researchers and authors and, as a result, get more citations
I fully agree with you dear Mazin Mustafa, the number of citations doesn't reflect anything about the quality of the research at all. Indeed a bad article can be quoted several times more than a good article. Similarly, a bad article can be published in a good journal. It really depends on many situations.
I appreciate aspects mentioned by Dr Partha. He is right & almost agreed by one
& all.
Even point by Chinaza is worth partly
appreciating.
I agree with the views shared by Dr Partha and endorsed by Dr SM Paul Khurana
A good, original, and quality paper will definitely get more attention, make more impact, and, as a result, get more citations.
However, a paper with little or no citation does not necessarily mean the paper is not original or has poor quality. But there's no better way to measure the impact of a paper than using citations. Impacts of a paper play important role in evaluating the overall quality of a publication
Hi,
The number of citations that a paper receives depends on several factors,the dynamics of the subject area, the type of journal, the type of material (if it is a conference paper or a journal paper). So, the number of citations is not necessarily a reflection of the quality of the paper, it is more an indicator of interest in the subject discussed in it.
Hi,
I would like to add to the above said, that the notion that citations reflect the quality of papers creates a kind of "vicious circle" in which researchers that believe this notion are choosing the highly cited journals for publication. In this circle the universities have a role, since many universities base the academic promotion on the number of papers published in the highly cited journals.
Very correct,
Once we analysed that many a Science or Nature papers are not cited at all.
Some authors also take pride in citing references of Important Jour papers cited indirectly though not really much relevant to their work.
Certainly the current topics, the new evidences produced and their quality/ quantity & sequence, matter discussed, the journal where published, not only confirming the earlier reports etc mean a lot for the readers to be impressed and
cite the paper...
A quality review article published in high impact journal will be cited more rather research artilce. Review article comprises of complete information about the selected topic while the research article only a specific portion of that topic.
Yes, very true.
Nevertheless there are greater
chances that the original papers are opted
more for citation.
This is true, but I believe that important things that control the number of citations are the originality and type of research itself, research methodology, the quality of analyzing and discussing results in addition to the journal in which the research is published.
Amel Amrani To a certain extent, yes, but there are several factors that influence citation. I agree with Avishag Gordon
Yes and no. It depends on a lot of factors. If we count only the citations of the journals indexed Web of Science yes. Sometimes it also depends on the discipline and specialty. A very good work in algebra will surely be less cited than a topical work on the blockchain or a study on Covid-19. it also depends on the community, whether it is small or large, ...
Agreed & Appreciate all above answers by
Oman Ali, Mustafa, Victor, and Ouail. 👌👍
In my opinion, the current metrics are not a real way to measure impact of publication on account of the number of citations because there are bias knowledge area of origin of the authors, communication in English and subject language being treated in manuscript. However, it is what we have for today, regardless of whether the disclosure is made by more traditional means, the case of indexed journals, or alternative, the case of social networks and platforms covering gray literature.
Amel Amrani One important fact about citations is, that they greatly vary with scientific disciplines. Average citations per article: more than 6 for Life Sciences, 3 for Physics, less than 3 for Chemistry, more than 2 for Biological and Environmental Sciences, about 1 for Social Sciences, and less than 1 for Mathematics and Computer Science. Source: Amin & Mabe (2000). Perspectives in Publishing 1: 1-6.
Yes! It’s also related to Ur work place, net working/Collaborators and the Mentor U had as well as where U publish.(?)
Number of citations may reflect one or all of the followings: versatility of the published article, quality of the research /journal, originality of the research, the area of research may be flourishing and easy accessibility. Hence open access journals have a high chance of more citations.
Yes, definitely the number of citations reflect the quality or originality of the work. However, in present era it is not always true as people follow trends and journal's requirment and also are bias in judgement. Many a times spurious publications are also being cited a number of time due to ignorance of fact. To check this an stringent rule are required to be fixed.
The bias tendency in term of article/journal quality often come from the West. Unfortunately, there is no uniform acceptable standard of assessing originality and quality of article /journal. Therefore, there is quest for summit of authors, editors and publishers to deliberate on that, with a view to finding lasting solution to problems of blacklisted journals and predatory conferences, that can be found every where in the world.
Very difficult to frame rules that can be followed easily as bias still remains.
it can’t be free from subjectivity!
Actually number of citations can not be a scale for measuring the quality and originality of a paper because of the bias involving the Journal of reference, the editors, peer reviews, etc.
Hi,
The number of citations reflect the interest in the paper, sometimes because of a fact mentioned in it, or some citation. When the number of citations is extremely high, then it could be a basic quality paper in the field, but generally , the citations show interest in a hot and much discussed issue, rather than reflect the quality of the paper.
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