Citation Counts and Evaluation of Researchers in the Internet Age

TL;DR

This paper discusses the limitations of citation-based bibliometric measures in researcher evaluation, emphasizing the need to consider web-related factors for more accurate assessments.

Contribution

It highlights fundamental issues overlooked by traditional citation metrics due to the impact of the internet and web-based information.

Findings

Citation counts have limitations in research evaluation.

Web influence affects citation-based metrics.

Traditional measures may not fully capture researcher impact.

Abstract

Bibliometric measures derived from citation counts are increasingly being used as a research evaluation tool. Their strengths and weaknesses have been widely analyzed in the literature and are often subject of vigorous debate. We believe there are a few fundamental issues related to the impact of the web that are not taken into account with the importance they deserve. We focus on evaluation of researchers, but several of our arguments may be applied also to evaluation of research institutions as well as of journals and conferences.