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Faculty Guide to Publication: Issues to Consider

This guide will help VWU faculty locate publications that cite their own published works and is intended to be useful in tenure & promotion review. It also provides guidance for what to consider when deciding where to publish.

Problems with the Process

Unfortunately, the process of cited reference searching has some pitfalls.

  • No one source is comprehensive

You cannot expect to find all your citations in any one source. Typically, the three main sources, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, all provide different results. How different depends on the field and dates of publication. The following articles provide interesting comparisons of Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar:

  • There are limits on what formats are searchable

The databases available for cited reference searching are primarily composed of articles. Books, book chapters, conference proceedings, dissertations and technical reports may be excluded. Although conference proceedings are beginning to be included more often (especially in Scopus), there are fewer places to search for citations of books.  Google Scholar does include some books.

  • Only certain journals are included in the main databases

Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar each index a finite collection of journals. If an article is cited in a journal not indexed by one of these databases, you will not find that citation when searching them. Some other things to consider regarding database indexing:

  • Some journals in various fields may be excluded. Some fields may be more comprehensively covered than others.
  • Journal articles in press are not included in the databases.
  • Journals are not necessarily consistently indexed nor indexed retrospectively when added to the databases.
  • There is limited coverage of non-English publications (Scopus claims to have better coverage than Web of Science).
  • Formats such as books are usually not included.
  • Publication date affects your results

Depending on the year of publication, Web of Science and Scopus may provide vastly different results. Scopus currently provides cited reference searching since 1996, while Web of Science reaches further back. If you are looking for older publications, search accordingly.

Further Information on Impact Factors

Even Bigger Issues to Consider

While your citation count is important, there are even larger issues to consider.

  • The system provides a limited indication of impact

In addition to the lack of books and other formats in cited reference searching databases, these databases do not look at citations on or links from websites. They are not able to indicate how often an article has been accessed or downloaded from a publisher, website, or institutional repository. Articles in certain fields may be widely read and cited by users who are not likely to publish (e.g. police departments, students, city planners, etc.).

  • Citation counts alone do not indicate the quality of the citations

An article may be cited because it is bad or coming under question.  Simply looking at the citation counts does not give the full picture.  Reading the citing article and noting where and how it refers to the cited work can give a better sense of the impact of the cited work.  

  • Impact factors for journals can be manipulated, "rigging" research

For more on this topic, see the article Why the Impact Factor of Journals Should Not Be Used for Evaluating Research.

  • Results can be misleading

Citation Statistics, a report by the Joint Committee on Quantitative Assessment of Research, identifies a number of ways in which citation data is misused. It reviews the limitations of citation statistics and gives clues on how to best use them.  Beware how you use your statistics.

More Articles of Interest