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The Limits of Citation Counts

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  • Antonin Macé

    (ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres)

Abstract

I study the measurement of scientists' influence using bibliographic data. The main result is an axiomatic characterization of the family of citation-counting indices, a broad class of influence measures which includes the renowned h-index. The result highlights several limitations of these indices: they are not suitable to compare scientists across different fields, and they cannot account for indirect influence. I explore how these limitations can be overcome by using richer bibliographic information.

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  • Antonin Macé, 2023. "The Limits of Citation Counts," Working Papers halshs-01630095, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01630095
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01630095v2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Antonin Mac'e, 2017. "The Limits of Citation Counts," Papers 1711.02695, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.

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    Keywords

    intellectual influence; citation indices; comparability across fields;
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