Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 22, 2026

Article-level metrics

Article-level metrics are citation metrics which measure the usage and impact of individual scholarly articles. The most common article-level citation metric is the number of citations. Field-weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) by Scopus divides the total citations by the average number of citations for an article in the scientific field.

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Article-level metrics are citation metrics which measure the usage and impact of individual scholarly articles. The most common article-level citation metric is the number of citations.1 Field-weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) by Scopus divides the total citations by the average number of citations for an article in the scientific field.2

Alternative article-level metrics include the CD index, a measure of the disruptiveness of an article.34

Adoption

Traditionally, bibliometrics have been used to evaluate the usage and impact of research, but have usually been focused on journal-level metrics such as the impact factor or researcher-level metrics such as the h-index.5 Article-level metrics, on the other hand, may demonstrate the impact of an individual article. This is related to, but distinct from, altmetrics.6

Starting in March 2009, the Public Library of Science introduced article-level metrics for all articles.7 The open access publisher PLOS provides article level metrics for all of its journals8 including downloads, citations, and altmetrics.9 In March 2014 it was announced that COUNTER statistics, which measure usage of online scholarly resources, are now available at the article level.10

See also

See also

References

References

  1. Tahamtan, Iman; Safipour Afshar, Askar; Ahamdzadeh, Khadijeh (2016). "Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature". Scientometrics. 107 (3): 1195–1225. doi:10.1007/s11192-016-1889-2. ISSN 0138-9130.
  2. Cooke, Bec. "Guides: Research Metrics: Field-Weighted Citation Impact". libguides.usc.edu.au.
  3. Funk, Russell J.; Owen-Smith, Jason (2017). "A Dynamic Network Measure of Technological Change". Management Science. 63 (3): 791–817. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2015.2366. ISSN 0025-1909.
  4. Park, Michael; Leahey, Erin; Funk, Russell J. (5 January 2023). "Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time". Nature. 613 (7942): 138–144. Bibcode:2023Natur.613..138P. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05543-x. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 36600070.
  5. "Article-Level Metrics". SPARC. Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  6. "Article-Level Metrics: A Sparc Primer" (PDF). SPARC. April 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  7. Fenner, Martin (2005-07-01). "Article-Level Metrics Information". Lagotto. PLoS ONE. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  8. "Overview". PLOS: Article-Level Metrics. Archived from the original on 14 February 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  9. Pattinson, Damian (March 2014). "The future is open: opportunities for publishers and institutions". Insights. 27 (1): 38–44. doi:10.1629/2048-7754.139.
  10. "Introduction to Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for Articles". COUNTER. Archived from the original on 22 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
Further reading

Further reading