Determinants of research citation impact in nanoscience and nanotechnology

Abstract

This study investigates a range of metrics available when a nanoscience and nanotechnology article is published to see which metrics correlate more with the number of citations to the article. It also introduces the degree of internationality of journals and references as new metrics for this purpose. The journal impact factor; the impact of references; the internationality of authors, journals, and references; and the number of authors, institutions, and references were all calculated for papers published in nanoscience and nanotechnology journals in the Web of Science from 2007 to 2009. Using a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model on the data set, the impact factor of the publishing journal and the citation impact of the cited references were found to be the most effective determinants of citation counts in all four time periods. In the entire 2007 to 2009 period, apart from journal internationality and author numbers and internationality, all other predictor variables had significant effects on citation counts.

Which factors help authors produce the highest impact research? Collaboration, journal and document properties

“…The results are consistent with previous studies (Didegah & Thelwall, 2013;Bornmann, Schier, Marx, & Daniel, 2012;Haslam et al, 2008;Kostoff, 2007;Boyack & Klavans, 2005;Peters & van Raan, 1994).…”

“…The same result has also been found in the previous literature (Didegah & Thelwall, 2013;Boyack & Klavans, 2005;Callaham, Wears, & Weber, 2002). Based on the results, if the JIF increases by one unit, the mean citation counts of articles in Chemistry, Social Sciences and Biology & Biochemistry increase by 31.9%, 27.8%, and 15.6%, respectively.…”

“…The impact of the publishing journal, measured by the journal impact factor (JIF), has been shown to be important for gaining attention to research papers in Demography (Van Dalen & Henkens, 2005). In two micro-level studies of Nanotechnology & Nanoscience and Emergency Medicine, the JIF was the most significant determinant of the number of citations to papers (Didegah & Thelwall, 2013;Callaham, Wears, & Weber, 2002). A large scale study also found the JIF to be the most important determinant of citation impact in 17 disciplines (including Biology & Biochemistry, Chemistry and Social Sciences) out of 24 disciplines and there was a positive significant correlation between this factor and article citation counts (Boyack & Klavans, 2005).…”

“…To measure the impact of references, the average number of citations to the cited references (Didegah & Thelwall, 2013), the total number of citations to the references (Boyack & Klavans, 2005) and the h-index of the cited references (Bornmann, Schier, Marx, & Daniel, 2012) have been examined.…”

Long term productivity and collaboration in information science

“…Franceschet & Costantini (2010), in an investigation of 970 Italian economics and statistics articles, found that the citation level increased as the number of authors increased from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3 or more. Didegah and Thelwall (2013), in a study of nanotechnology articles, found that the number of authors was not a significant determinant of citations once other factors, such as various types of internationality, were taken into account. Levitt (2015), in an investigation of nineteen social science disciplines for the years 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007, found that, although the mean citation counts rose as the number of authors increased from 1 to 4, by far the largest rise occurred when the number of authors increased from 1 to 2.…”