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Quick guide to finding personal citation data

In some areas of research, citation analysis can be used as a quality indicator. Using various tools, it is possible to calculate the number of times your published research has been cited by other researchers.

This quick guide explains how to discover the number of times your published research has been cited, and who is doing the citing.

A variety of databases can be used to find the number of citations a publication has received. However, it is essential that where you use more than one database to identify who has been citing your articles, you must ensure that you do not count citations to the same articles more than once.

Here are some of the most commonly used citation tracking tools:

Search Tool Subject Area Coverage
Web of Science (Thomson's ISI) Science, Social Science, Art and Humanities Comprises the Science, Social Sciences, and Arts and Humanities Citation Indexes. It contains bibliographic information about articles in peer reviewed, high impact, and research journals. There is some overlap with Scopus.
Scopus Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, Life and Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Economics, Biological, Agricultural and Environmental Science, General Sciences Contains bibliographic information about articles in peer reviewed journals, including the number of citations a publication has received. While there is some overlap with the Web of Science database, Scopus indexes a range of journals not covered by Web of Science.
Scopus includes most of the content of Science Direct which covers academic journals in the areas of business, management and accounting.
Google Scholar Multi-disciplinary Provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. Search across many disciplines and sources, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, institutional repositories, universities and other scholarly organisations.

Web of Science

Accessing Web of Science

  1. Go to: http://www.swin.edu.au/lib/database/webofknowledge.htm
  2. Under Go to Web of Knowledge, click on the link to Web of Science. 
    If you are using a computer from home or work you will need to log in following the instructions on screen.
  3. Click Cited Reference Search from the Home page
    cited-ref-search

  4. Enter the name of the cited author as below.
  5. Include cited work or year if known.
    (if you wish to find citation information for your own publications, enter your own name here)


  6. Click Search.
    The results below show the number of times the article has been cited. Note that incorrect citations may be listed, so check carefully when making your total. 

To view the articles which have cited these papers:

  1. Click the check box beside appropriate references.
  2. Click Finish Search to retrieve the articles that cite the selected references.

Note: You can also arrange for Web of Science to send you an email each time a publication is cited See more...

Issues to be aware of

  • Data is limited to citations received for journals indexed by Web of Science only
  • Conference proceedings and books may have limited coverage
  • There may be some overlap between databases, so it is essential to ensure that only unique cites are counted
  • The format of the author name may vary, and all variations need to be included in the count, e.g. Young, I. or Young, Ian or Young, I. R.
  • The citation may have been entered incorrectly or misspelled - these variations need to be included in the count.
  • Because some names are common, make sure you don't pick up publications by a different person with the same name.

_____

Scopus

Accessing Scopus

To find an author's total citations:

  1. Go to: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/database/scopus.htm. If you are using a computer from home or work you will need to log in using the instructions on screen.
  2. Click Author Search.
  3. Type the author's surname (yours if you are looking for your own citation information)
  4. Type the author's initials (if known)
  5. Type the author's current affiliation (if known)

  6. Click Search
  7. You will be preseted with a list of possible authors. Tick the box next to the one/s that seem appropriate and

To find a specific article's citations:

  1. Click Basic Search.
  2. Enter the author's last name in the Authors field (select from the dropdown menu)
  3. AND a phrase from the article title in the Article Title field (select from the dropdown menu).
    Note: Using the complete article title may limit results as errors in citations can occur.

  4. Where the correct citation is listed, click on the number in the Cited By column. This will take you to a list of articles (in Scopus only) that cite the selected article. You can print out or save the references for future use.

  5. You can set up a document citation alert that notifies you by email when your article is cited in Scopus. Before you can establish any alerts in Scopus you need to register by clicking on the Register link at the top right of the search page.

Once you have registered you can find out when the publication is cited in the future by creating a Citation Alert:

  1. Search for the article you wish to be notified about
  2. Click Abstract and Refs beneath the title
    scopus-results


  3. Click the E-mail Alert link below the column on the right
    scopus-alert

Issues to be aware of

  • Data is limited to citations received for journals indexed by Scopus only
  • Conference proceedings and books may have limited coverage
  • There may be some overlap between databases, so it is essential to ensure that only unique cites are counted
  • The format of the author name may vary, and all variations need to be included in the count, e.g. Young, I. or Young, Ian or Young, I. R.
  • The citation may have been entered incorrectly or misspelled - these variations should be included in the count.
  • Because some names are common, make sure you don't pick up publications by a different person with the same name.

_____

Google Scholar

Google Scholar can be used to locate citations of particular authors' works, as an alternative, or working in parallel with other citation databases such as Web of Science and Scopus. Note that some material indexed by Google Scholar may not meet the RQF quality guidelines.
scholar

Retrieving citation counts from Google Scholar

The example below is the search strategy to locate the following citation:

Kia, M., Shayan, E. & Ghotb, F. (2000). The importance of information technology in port terminal operations. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 30, no. 3/4, pp. 331-344:

  1. Click Advanced Scholar Search
  2. Fill in author and title details:
    scholar-search

    (or search these details from your original Google Scholar search box)
    scholar-search2

  3. When you have found the result you were looking for, click on the Cited by... link to view the references that cite the author
    scholar-results

Issues to be aware of

  • Scholar points the Google search engine at material which is freely available on the web and is defined as 'scholarly' by Google so if you are not sure of the quality of the journal, check Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
  • There are many bugs in this beta version, and errors in the indexing, e.g. in spelling of authors' names
  • Coverage is predominantly medical, scientific and technical. It is not the best source for citation analysis of social science or humanities topics or Australian material
  • You may not be able to narrow your results by adding the author's institution when searching as Google Scholar may not always link the author to an institution

For more information contact: Helen Wolff or Nyssa Parkes