On measuring scholarly influence by citations

Martin Ravallion and Adam Wagstaff

Scientometrics, 2011, vol. 88, issue 1, No 21, 337 pages

Abstract: Abstract Bibliometric measures based on citations are widely used in assessing the scientific publication records of authors, institutions and journals. Yet currently favored measures lack a clear theoretical foundation and are known to have counter-intuitive properties. The paper proposes a new approach that is grounded on a theoretical “influence function,” representing explicit prior beliefs about how citations reflect influence. Conditions are derived for robust qualitative comparisons of influence—conditions that can be implemented using readily-available data. Two examples are provided, one using the world’s top-10 economics department, the other using the top-10 economics journals.

Keywords: Citations; h-Index; Scientific influence; Economics departments; Economics journals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-011-0375-0

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