Citation analysis

Citation analysis studies the pattern of citations between academic publications, who cites whom, how often, and in what context, to measure a paper's or researcher's influence, trace how a research field developed, or identify foundational work.

Citations can be treated as a network, where a paper's node connects to the papers it cites and the papers that later cite it, and techniques from graph analytics, the same link-based logic behind algorithms like PageRank, are commonly applied to identify influential nodes rather than relying on raw citation counts alone. Aggregated citation counts also feed metrics such as the h-index and the journal impact factor.

Researchers use citation analysis to find foundational literature in an unfamiliar area, institutions and funders use it to evaluate research output, and publishers use it to assess a journal's standing. Pitfalls include that a citation count does not distinguish a citation supporting a finding from one criticizing or correcting it, citation practices vary substantially by field and career stage, and citation cartels, groups that cite each other disproportionately, can inflate metrics without reflecting genuine influence.