*** Explanations below ***
Author: J. Smith
|
Year |
First
page |
Times cited |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1994 |
663 |
8 |
1 |
4 |
|
3 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1995 |
4994 |
5 |
|
1 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
|
1995 |
68 |
32 |
|
3 |
15 |
10 |
28 |
|
1995 |
586 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
0 |
|
1995 |
44 |
28 |
|
2 |
8 |
14 |
24 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1996 |
6 |
12 |
|
|
1 |
7 |
8 |
|
1996 |
397 |
6 |
|
|
|
3 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1997 |
17 |
16 |
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
|
1997 |
4332 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
0 |
|
1997 |
284 |
4 |
|
|
|
2 |
2 |
|
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This sample score sheet (illustrating data for a hypothetical author, "J. Smith") shows one publication in 1994, four in 1995, two in 1996, and three in 1997. (The scorer chose to begin at the earliest countable publication in the Web of Science list and work backward through the list, so that entries would appear here in date order, earliest to latest.)
""First page" is the beginning page number of the article, and "Times cited" is the total number of citations the paper has ever received (the number recorded in the "Times cited" field of its Web of Science entry). These two items are recorded here only for convenience, as a means of distinguishing the paper from other papers of the same date should the scorer have to go back to double-check a count or wish to update the count in the future.
Two of the publications recorded (one in 1995 and one in 1997) have never been cited, so both their "Times cited" and their "Total" citations are zero.
Consider the first 1997 publication. It has been cited 16 times since it was published, but only one of those citations fell within the 1994-1997 target time window; the rest were in 1998 or later. Compare the 1994 publication. It has been cited a total of eight times, and all of its citations fell within the target time window.
To arrive at the final publication statistics for "J. Smith," one counts the publications down the left-most column (1 + 4 + 2 + 3 = 10), and one sums the total citations down the right-most column (= 79).
I chose to score citations year by year, rather than simply to keep a running tally for the four-year window, to facilitate future counts using different time windows (e.g. 1995-1998). If you know that you will update the count later, simply include more date columns in the table and space at the bottom for entries dated 1998 and later. During a later count, the dates and first page numbers will serve to match table entries to Web of Science entries, and the total citation count will prove a convenience (e.g., if a publication's total has not changed, and all citations are accounted for in an earlier count, that publication's citations need not be counted again).
For contexts in which self citations should be counted separately (so that they can be included for "NRC-style" uses and omitted for other purposes), the score sheet should include two columns for each year so that, e.g., self citations can be recorded on the left and others on the right.
If you have questions or comments, please contact Anne B. Thistle.