Citations

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Citations and referencing are important components of academic practice - building on past work to discover new knowledge and acknowledging pioneers and peers.

At an individual level, citations help guide other researchers to your work; provide a form of acknowledgement that one research paper gives to another; and helps build credibility as an author.

At an institutional level, citations are an important metric accounting for:

Times Higher Education World University Ranking (30% of the overall scoring)
QS World University Rankings (20% of the overall scoring)
Research Excellence Framework (some sub-panels may consider the number of times that an output has been cited)

Factors Influencing Citations

There are a number of factors that influence citations, including paper, journal and author related factors. Tahamtan et al (2016) categorise 28 factors that influence the frequency of citations, citing the following as some of the strongest factors:

Quality of the paper
Journal choice and impact factor
Number of authors
International collaboration
Open Access

Ulster University Citation Strategy

Ulster University’s new Citation Strategy provides guidance and direction on how we can increase our citations at Ulster. The document provides an insight into the key factors influencing citations together with an overview of the citations rates at Ulster, and how we benchmark against other universities and UK average.

Recommendations have been provided on how we can increase citations and scholarly impact (from simply ensuring you have an ORCID iD and avoiding duplication, to using Open Access, publishing in top journals and promoting your research) and Ulster University’s commitment and support in achieving these aims.

Download Ulster University Citation Strategy

10 things to increase citations

The following are 10 things individual academics/researchers could be doing to increase citations and the scholarly impact of your work

1. Have an ORCID and use it

This ID is a unique identifier and is used to connect an individual to their published output and contributions to research. Register at the ORCID website for an ID. Use it when submitting journal articles. Most online article submission areas will have a space for entering your ORCID ID.
Read: Ten reasons to get - and use - an ORCID iD! See also the Library Guide Bibliometrics & Citation Analysis: Your Research Profile.
2. Co-author with international author(s)

Existing research and Ulster citation analysis shows that articles with international author(s) are more likely to get cited. Potential international co-authors can be identified within PURE.
3. Cite yourself and other Ulster colleagues

Cite yourself, and the work of other Ulster colleagues, where appropriate. This is an opportunity to promote other relevant published output that you have authored, and bring it to the attention of those reading your work. You also have an opportunity to raise the profile of other, relevant Ulster research and give it wider visibility and attention.
4. Ensure the journal you are publishing in is indexed in Scopus

Ensure the journal you are publishing in is indexed in Scopus. The journal that you are submitting to should be of sufficient quality to be indexed in Scopus, Scopus content check.
Also see Scopus blog post check before you publish.
5. Publish in the top ranking journals in your subject

Publish in top ranking journals in your subject.
To find out the top ranking journals in your subject, search Journal Citation Reports and go to Select Categories to select the subject area, e.g. Education and Educational Research, the most recent year, and the JIF Quartile (Q1 or Q1 and Q2), then Submit to get the list of journals in the subject area ranked by Journal Impact Factor.
Aim to publish in the top Q1 (top quartile/top 25%) of journals in your subject. If that is not possible, then move to the Q2 journals. If you are not able to publish in Q1 or Q2 journals then it is important to consider what you could do to bring the work up to a level where it would be accepted by a Q1 or Q2 journal. Journal impact metrics based on Scopus data are also available from the Journal Metrics website.
Existing research, and Ulster citations statistics demonstrates that publishing in the top 25% of journals in a subject increases citations. See the Library Guide Bibliometrics & Citation Analysis: Journal Impact.
6. Ensure your work is Open Access

Evidence shows that open access (regardless of route) can increase citation impact. ‘Green’ open access can be achieved by ensuring you deposit a version of your final accepted author manuscript to the institutional repository (through PURE) so that everyone can access it. In addition, you may also wish to upload to a subject repository for wider visibility.
See website on Open Access and further information in PURE support website as well as HEFCE’s Open Access Research guide.
7. Use your free author prints/e-copies

Use your free author prints/e-copies and share them with other people working in your area (inside and outside the university), who may wish to cite your work in their own writing.
8. Promote your publications on social media

Promote your publications on social media (Twitter and LinkedIn) and on research discovery sites such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate and Kudos. For more information see the Library Guide Bibliometrics & Citation Analysis: Altmetrics.
9. Increase your h-index

Know what your h-index is, and focus on increasing the visibility of, and promoting, your output that will increase your h-index. Look up your h-index in Scopus.
In Scopus, select the Authors search. Ensure that you have only one Scopus author profile. If you have multiple entries (either in different subject areas or from working in different institutions), you can ask Scopus to merge them. See the Library Guide Bibliometrics & Citation Analysis: Researcher Impact.
10. Read more about how to increase your citations

Read more about how to increase your citations. See: Tahamtan et al. (2016) Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature Scientometrics, 107 (3): 1195-1225 and the Ulster Library Guides on Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis