The Limits of Citation Counts

Abstract

I study the measurement of scientists' influence using bibliographic data. The main result is an axiomatic characterization of the family of citation-counting indices, a broad class of influence measures which includes the renowned h-index. The result highlights several limitations of these indices: they are not suitable to compare scientists across different fields, and they cannot account for indirect influence. I explore how these limitations can be overcome by using richer bibliographic information.