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Research Impact Metrics

Provides an overview of Research Impact Metrics

Field Weighted Citation Impact & Category Normalized Citation Impact

Sample Statement:

"For the years 2019 to 2024 my FWCI in FoR 4001 is 1.35, which means my published outputs received a 35% higher rate of citations compared to the world average in Aerospace Engineering."

What is Field-Weighted or Category Normalized Citation Impact:

Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI - found in SciVal), or Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI - found in Incites), are metrics used to measure the citation performance of an author (or institution, journal, article, etc.) relative to the world average in their field. They account for differences in citation practices across disciplines, publication types, and publication years.

How FWCI is calculated:

The formula is:

  • Total citations received: The actual number of citations the author's publications have received in the publication year and the following 3 years.
  • Total expected citations: The average number of citations received by similar publications (same field, type, and year) in the same year ranges.
Key Points:
  • An FWCI of 1.00 means the author's work is cited exactly as expected.
  • An FWCI greater than 1.00 means the work is cited more than expected (above average).
  • An FWCI less than 1.00 means the work is cited less than expected (below average).
Example:

If an author has three papers:

Paper   Citations Received   Expected Citations    FWCI
    A              10             5        2
    B               4             4        1
    C               6            12       0.5

Then:

The author's FWCI is 1.17, which means the author's work is cited 17% higher than the global average for similar publications.

To find Field Weighted Citation Impact, go to SciVal

  1. Go to Explore, click Entity list Entity List select a researcher from Researchers and GroupsResearchers & Groups
  2. If researcher not in list, select Create/Import, and then Define a new Researcher and follow the prompts.
  3. Select the required year range and Apply.
  4. Select Citation Metrics from Bibliometrics list and scroll down to the Field-Weighted Citation Impact.

To find Category Normalized Citation Impact, go to Incites

  1. Go to Analyze and then Researchers.
  2. Type the researcher surname into the search box or unique ID (e.g. ORCID), then select from the list.
  3. Change the date range as require. For example, choose a custom range starting from your first year of publishing.
  4. Category Normalized Citation Impact is listed in the table for the researcher.
  5. If your publications are not in the table, go to Indicators and manually add the required ones.

 

  • Time-dependent: The metric for the same author may vary heavily in different year ranges.
  • Outlier Influence: The metric can be skewed by publications with unusually high citations.
  • Small Sets: The metric is less reliable for small sets of publications. Researchers who have published a small number of papers should use this metric carefully and combine multiple metrics, like publication numbers and citation counts.