---
title: "Field-weighted citation impact: formula and example"
description: "Field-weighted citation impact explained: variables, a worked example, related methods and assumptions. A paper's citations divided by the average for papers of the same field, year and document type."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/equations/field-weighted-citation-impact
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/equations/field-weighted-citation-impact.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "Field-weighted citation impact explained: variables, a worked example, related methods and assumptions. A paper's citations divided by the average for papers of the same field, year and document type. (as of 2026-11-05)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-05T06:02:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-07 to 2026-11-05
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Field-weighted citation impact

$$
FWCI_i = \frac{c_i}{\bar c_{f, y, d}}
$$

A paper's citations divided by the average for papers of the same field, year and document type.

- area: Bibliometrics
- 0 papers in the last 7 days
- Names searched for: field-weighted citation impact, field-normalized citation, field-normalised citation, FWCI

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/equations.md

## Variables and notation

c_i is an item's citation count and c-bar_(f,y,d) the expected count for its field, publication year and document type; FWCI is their ratio.

## Worked example

A paper with 12 citations against an expected count of 4 has FWCI=3, or three times the benchmark.

## Related methods and when to use them

FWCI normalizes citation context; raw citations do not. Results depend on database, field assignment and citation window; an expected value of zero needs explicit handling and small samples can be volatile.

## Sources and further reading

- [Elsevier Research Intelligence: research metrics guide — field-weighted citation impact](https://supportcontent.elsevier.com/RightNow%20Next%20Gen/SciVal/ACAD_RL_ElsevierResearchMetricsBook_WEB.pdf)

Examples use illustrative inputs, not observed research results. Logarithms are natural unless stated otherwise. Guide updated 2026-11-05. Prepared by Scholar4AI. [Editorial and verification policy](/editorial-policy).

## Key findings

- Field-weighted citation impact was mentioned in 2 papers in the last 30 days (2026-10-07 to 2026-11-05), ranking #214 of the 248 equations and models mentioned.
- By journal category: Higher Education and Research (2).
- Most of them appeared in Scientometrics (2).
- Often mentioned together with Journal impact factor (2), Regression discontinuity design (1) and Instrumental variables (two-stage least squares) (1).
- From Nov 2023 to Oct 2026, 76 archived papers mentioned Field-weighted citation impact in their title, abstract, keywords or full text, most of them in Jul 2026 (6).
- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), Field-weighted citation impact was mentioned in 87 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (65), management (5) and statistics (4).
- 23 of them were published in 2025, against 1 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were University of Technology Sydney (6), Max Planck Society (4) and Mercatorum University (4).
- The journals publishing most of them were Scientometrics (43), Journal of Informetrics (9) and Higher Education (4).
- The most-cited of them is “Comparison of two article-level, field-independent citation metrics: Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and Relative Citation Ratio (RCR)” (Journal of Informetrics, 2019), with 188 citations.

## Mentions over 36 months

*Papers mentioning it by publication month, Nov 2023 to Oct 2026 (titles, abstracts, keywords and full texts)*

| Trend | Nov 23–Oct 24 | Nov 24–Oct 25 | Nov 25–Oct 26 | 36 months |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|
|  | 18 | 22 | 36 | 76 |

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 18 | 23 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 23 | 33 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Scientometrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/scientometrics.md) | 43 |
| 2 | [Journal of Informetrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-informetrics.md) | 9 |
| 3 | [Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/higher-education.md) | 4 |
| 4 | [Quality & Quantity](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/quality-quantity.md) | 3 |
| 5 | [Research Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-policy.md) | 2 |
| 6 | [The Journal of Academic Librarianship](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship.md) | 2 |
| 7 | [Journal of the Knowledge Economy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-the-knowledge-economy.md) | 2 |
| 8 | [Metrika](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/metrika.md) | 1 |
| 9 | [Minerva](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/minerva.md) | 1 |
| 10 | [Technology in Society](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technology-in-society.md) | 1 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [University of Technology Sydney](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney.md) | 6 |
| 2 | Max Planck Society | 4 |
| 3 | Mercatorum University | 4 |
| 4 | Universidad Complutense de Madrid | 4 |
| 5 | Universidad Politécnica de Madrid | 4 |
| 6 | University of Rome Tor Vergata | 4 |
| 7 | German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies | 3 |
| 8 | [University of Sheffield](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-sheffield.md) | 3 |
| 9 | [Aarhus University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/aarhus-university.md) | 2 |
| 10 | Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań | 2 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | Spain | 14 |
| 2 | Germany | 9 |
| 3 | United States | 9 |
| 4 | Australia | 8 |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 8 |
| 6 | Italy | 7 |
| 7 | Netherlands | 5 |
| 8 | Poland | 5 |
| 9 | Hungary | 4 |
| 10 | Austria | 3 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | citation impact | 21 |
| 2 | research evaluation | 16 |
| 3 | research productivity | 12 |
| 4 | citation metrics | 11 |
| 5 | bibliometric indicators | 10 |
| 6 | field-weighted citation impact | 10 |
| 7 | research collaboration | 8 |
| 8 | Scopus | 7 |
| 9 | bibliometric analysis | 6 |
| 10 | disciplinary differences | 6 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 188 | 2.1 | [Comparison of two article-level, field-independent citation metrics: Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and Relative Citation Ratio (RCR)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2019.03.012) | [Journal of Informetrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-informetrics.md) | 2019-04-03 | Amrita Purkayastha, Eleonora Palmaro, Holly J. Falk-Krzesinski et al. |
| 2 | 113 | 1.0 | [The impact of research collaboration on academic performance: An empirical analysis for some European countries](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2017.05.003) | [Socio-Economic Planning Sciences](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/socio-economic-planning-sciences.md) | 2017-06-04 | Luigi Aldieri, Maxim Nikolaevich Kotsemir, Concetto Paolo Vinci |
| 3 | 33 | 0.8 | [Do bibliometrics introduce gender, institutional or interdisciplinary biases into research evaluations?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2023.104829) | [Research Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-policy.md) | 2023-06-12 | Mike A Thelwall, Kayvan Kousha, Emma Stuart et al. |
| 4 | 28 | 0.8 | [Ranking resilience: assessing the impact of scientific performance and the expansion of the Times Higher Education Word University Rankings on the position of Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Slovak universities](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04920-1) | [Scientometrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/scientometrics.md) | 2024-02-06 | Barbara Tóth, Hossein Motahari-Nezhad, Nicki Horseman et al. |
| 5 | 26 | 0.9 | [Foundations of Narrative Bibliometrics](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2024.101546) | [Journal of Informetrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-informetrics.md) | 2024-05-30 | Daniel Torres‐Salinas, Enrique Orduña‐Malea, Ángel M. Delgado-Vázquez et al. |
| 6 | 24 | 0.8 | [National research impact is driven by global collaboration, not rising performance](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-024-05010-6) | [Scientometrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/scientometrics.md) | 2024-04-23 | Jonathan R. Adams, Martin Szomszor |
| 7 | 24 | 1.6 | [Research evaluation with ChatGPT: is it age, country, length, or field biased?](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-025-05393-0) | [Scientometrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/scientometrics.md) | 2025-08-08 | Mike A Thelwall, Zeyneb Kurt |
| 8 | 23 | 0.7 | [The accuracy of field classifications for journals in Scopus](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04901-4) | [Scientometrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/scientometrics.md) | 2024-01-08 | Mike A Thelwall, Stephen Pinfield |
| 9 | 20 | 1.2 | [Half a Century of Information Processing & Management: A bibliometric retrospective](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2025.104238) | [Information Processing & Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/information-processing-management.md) | 2025-06-04 | Mohammad Sadegh Khorshidi, José M. Merigó, Ghassan Beydoun |
| 10 | 17 | 0.2 | [Measuring research in the big data era: The evolution of performance measurement systems in the Italian teaching hospitals](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.10.002) | [Health Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/health-policy.md) | 2020-10-10 | Frank Horenberg, Daniel Adrian Lungu, Sabina Nuti |

Archive counts by publication year: a paper counts when its title, abstract or keywords name the equation, or when OpenAlex's full-text search finds it there (searched for the last 30 days' papers and, by a pass over the past years, for older ones). Names added to the list later are looked for in older papers as the archive is read again.

*Papers mentioning Field-weighted citation impact, newest first.*

| Date | Title | Journal | Authors | Affiliations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-08 | [Metric capital: how academic indicators become interactional resource](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-026-05848-y) | [Scientometrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/scientometrics.md) | Łukasz Remisiewicz | University of Gdańsk |
| 2026-10-08 | [Are large language models able to predict highly cited papers? Evidence from statistical publications](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-026-05839-z) | [Scientometrics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/scientometrics.md) | Zhanshuo Ye, Yiming Hou, Rui Pan et al. | Central University of Finance and Economics; Peking University |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Field-weighted citation impact. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/equations/field-weighted-citation-impact

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-equations-field-weighted-citation-impact,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Field-weighted citation impact},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/equations/field-weighted-citation-impact}},
  urldate = {2026-11-05},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).