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The Measurement of the Effect on Citation Inequality of Differences in Citation Practices across Scientific Fields

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  • Juan A Crespo
  • Yungrong Li
  • Javier Ruiz–Castillo

Abstract

This paper has two aims: (i) to introduce a novel method for measuring which part of overall citation inequality can be attributed to differences in citation practices across scientific fields, and (ii) to implement an empirical strategy for making meaningful comparisons between the number of citations received by articles in 22 broad fields. The number of citations received by any article is seen as a function of the article’s scientific influence, and the field to which it belongs. A key assumption is that articles in the same quantile of any field citation distribution have the same degree of citation impact in their respective field. Using a dataset of 4.4 million articles published in 1998–2003 with a five-year citation window, we estimate that differences in citation practices between the 22 fields account for 14% of overall citation inequality. Our empirical strategy is based on the strong similarities found in the behavior of citation distributions. We obtain three main results. Firstly, we estimate a set of average-based indicators, called exchange rates, to express the citations received by any article in a large interval in terms of the citations received in a reference situation. Secondly, using our exchange rates as normalization factors of the raw citation data reduces the effect of differences in citation practices to, approximately, 2% of overall citation inequality in the normalized citation distributions. Thirdly, we provide an empirical explanation of why the usual normalization procedure based on the fields’ mean citation rates is found to be equally successful.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan A Crespo & Yungrong Li & Javier Ruiz–Castillo, 2013. "The Measurement of the Effect on Citation Inequality of Differences in Citation Practices across Scientific Fields," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-9, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0058727
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058727
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ludo Waltman & Nees Jan van Eck, 2012. "A new methodology for constructing a publication‐level classification system of science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(12), pages 2378-2392, December.
    2. Pedro Albarrán & Javier Ruiz‐Castillo, 2011. "References made and citations received by scientific articles," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(1), pages 40-49, January.
    3. Pedro Albarrán & Juan A. Crespo & Ignacio Ortuño & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2011. "The skewness of science in 219 sub-fields and a number of aggregates," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(2), pages 385-397, August.
    4. Ludo Waltman & Nees Jan Eck, 2012. "A new methodology for constructing a publication-level classification system of science," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(12), pages 2378-2392, December.
    5. Crespo, Juan A. & Herranz, Neus, 2012. "Field normalization at different aggregation levels," UC3M Working papers. Economics we1222, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Xing, 2024. "The misuse of the nonlinear field normalization method: Nonlinear field normalization citation counts at the paper level should not be added or averaged," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    2. Cristian Colliander & Per Ahlgren, 2019. "Comparison of publication-level approaches to ex-post citation normalization," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 283-300, July.
    3. Mohammad Javad Mansourzadeh & Behrooz Shahmoradi & Hossein Dehdarirad & Elmira Janavi, 2019. "A note on using revealed comparative advantages in scientometrics studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(1), pages 595-599, October.
    4. Hou, Li & Wu, Qiang & Xie, Yundong, 2024. "Does open identity of peer reviewers positively relate to citations?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).

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