What do citation counts measure? A review of studies on citing behavior

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a narrative review of studies on the citing behaviorrnof scientists, covering mainly research published in the last 15 years. Based on the results of thesernstudies, the paper seeks to answer the question of the extent to whieh scientists are motivated to cite arnpublication not only to acknowledge intellectual and cognitive influences of scientific peers, but alsornfor other, possibly non-scientific, reasons.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The review covers research published from the early 1960s uprnto mid 2005 (approximately 30 studies on citing behavior-reporting results in about 40 publications).rnFindings - The general tendency of the results of the empirical studies makes it clear that citingrnbehavior is not motivated solely by the wish to acknowledge intellectual and cognitive influences ofrncolleague scientists, since the individual studies reveal also other, in part non-scientific, factors thatrnplay a part in the decision to cite. However, the results of the studies must also be deemed scarcelyrnreliable: the studies vary widely in design, and their results can hardly be replicated. Many of thernstudies have methodological weaknesses. Furthermore, there is evidence that the different motivationsrnof citers are "not so different or 'randomly given' to such an extent that the phenomenon of citationrnwould lose its role as a reliable measure of impact".rnOriginality/value - Given the increasing importance of evaluative bibliometrics in the world ofrnscholarship, the question "What do citation counts measure?" is a particularly relevant and topicalrnissue.