The rise and rise of citation analysis

Citation analysis is, however, about much more than producing shock statistics. Along with peer review, it has over the past three decades been increasingly used to judge and quantify the importance of scientists and scientific research. Citation analysis is also the machinery behind journal "impact factors" -figures of merit that researchers take note of when deciding which journal to submit their work to so that it is read as widely as possible. Indeed, the output from citation studies is often the only way that non-specialists in governments and funding bodies -or even those in different scientific disciplines -can judge the importance of a piece of scientific research.