Improving Citation Analysis: Taking Account of Order of Authors and Number of Different Articles in Which a Scholar Is Cited

• Published date: 01 August 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10439862231172731
• Author: Ellen G. Cohn,David P. Farrington
• Date: 01 August 2023

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862231172731

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2023, Vol. 39(3) 446 –457

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862231172731

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Article

Improving Citation Analysis:

Taking Account of Order

of Authors and Number of

Different Articles in Which

a Scholar Is Cited

Ellen G. Cohn1 and David P. Farrington2

Abstract

Research using citation counts as a metric for measuring scholarly influence and

prestige generally gives equal weighting to all authors of a scholarly work. However,

as the order of authors frequently reflects the relative importance and involvement

of authors, it may be more valid to consider this issue when examining citations. This

article focuses on citations in Criminology and gives authors a score based on their

order in the author list. Only the first five authors in each reference are counted, so

the first author is given a score of 5, the second author a score of 4, and so on. In

addition, citation analysis typically counts the total number of citations, rather than

the number of different articles in which a scholar is cited. Arguably, the number of

different articles is a more valid measure because it shows how many other authors

are influenced by a scholar. A large number of citations in a small number of articles

may reflect a relatively small amount of scholarly influence. This article shows the

effect of counting the number of different articles in which a scholar is cited. We

argue that citation analysis would be improved by taking account of the order of

authors and the number of different articles.

Keywords

scholarly influence, citation analysis, author order

1Florida International University, Miami, USA

2University of Cambridge, UK

Corresponding Author:

Ellen G. Cohn, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida International University, PCA

261A, Miami, FL 33199, USA.

Email: cohne@fiu.edu

1172731CCJXXX10.1177/10439862231172731Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeCohn and Farrington

research-article2023