Poor research is not simply lack of citations. Retraction Watch shows top-tier journals have frequent retractions and problems from politicized processes. Another problem is citation rings. Teams often cite each other to drive up their impact factors. Finally, top-tier journals are businesses, with most having large fees for open access. If someone can't pay $3000-5000, then the article is not open access. Not open access gets much fewer citations because one can't read it without paying.

My recommendation: You should evaluate research on its merits.

David Coker Thank you so much for your insights. I will definitely adhere.

For me, it is important to analyze the usefulness of the paper for your research activity. When we are not known, researchers may ignore our article. You have to be well known to be cited by other researchers who wish to have "good references". Another reason: your article must present a useful novelty to attract the curiosity of researchers.

Bharti Sharma

Thank you for the question; it certainly needs to be asked.

Whether something has been cited in the past 2, 3, or 4 years does not imply that the work is sub-standard. Firstly, there may be no follow-up research done on a paper because there is no demand for that particular research; secondly, depending on whether the author is part of a community that, as David Coker mentioned, cites each other's work to bump up the number of citations. Lastly, researchers looking at your work might be negatively impacted, leaving them with a 'what happens if the work that I have taken xxx months/years to complete is not cited? Does that mean it is not good enough or not relevant enough?'

We certainly do not want to harm future researchers (ers) with this.

Absolutely. Thank you, Michelle.

Bharti Sharma : NO. Maybe it is not very relevant to current research, but relevance and quality are different topics. It could also be that no-one found it, but it is actually a gold-mine of knowledge.

true

I think it does not contribute significantly to any practical theoretical development in any field of knowledge.