Should we use the mean citations per paper to summarise a journal’s impact or to rank journals in the same field?

Mike Calver; J. Stuart Bradley

doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2229-y

doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2229-y

Should we use the mean citations per paper to summarise a journal’s impact or to rank journals in the same field?

,

Scientometrics3.90

Volume: 81, Issue: 3, Pages: 611 - 615

Published: Apr 17, 2009

Abstract

The mean citations per paper is used increasingly as a simple metric for indicating the impact of a journal or comparing journal rankings. While convenient, we suggest that it has limitations given the highly skewed distributions of citations per paper in a wide range of...