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Relative Citation Ratio (RCR): A New Metric That Uses Citation Rates to Measure Influence at the Article Level
B Ian Hutchins1, Xin Yuan1, James M Anderson2
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America.
Plos Biology
|September 7, 2016
Summary
This study introduces a new metric, the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR), to measure research influence. RCR normalizes citation counts by field, offering a more accurate way to identify impactful scientific articles.
Area of Science:
- Bibliometrics
- Scientific Impact Assessment
- Research Evaluation
Background:
- Bibliometric assessments are widely used but have limitations.
- Journal Impact Factors are often misused to identify influential papers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an improved method for quantifying research article influence.
- To introduce the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) as a field-independent metric.
Main Methods:
- Utilized co-citation networks to field-normalize citation counts.
- Calculated expected citation rates based on field performance and peer benchmarking.
- Developed the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) metric.
Main Results:
- Analyzed 88,835 articles (2003-2010) to assess National Institutes of Health awardees' influence.
- Found stable influence positions across disciplines for NIH awardees.
- Demonstrated strong correlation between RCR values and expert opinions in biomedical research.
Conclusions:
- The Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) offers a reliable, field-independent alternative to journal impact factors.
- The RCR method is applicable across all scientific disciplines.
- A beta version of the iCite tool is available for calculating RCRs.
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