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How much is a citation worth? 3? 6? 100 000? Any of those answers is correct, according to back-of-the-envelope calculations over the past few decades. 1 -3 The spread between these numbers suggests that none of them is accurate, but it's inarguable that citations are the coin of the realm in academia. Bibliometrics and school rankings are largely based on publications and citations. Take the Times Higher Education rankings, for example, in which citations and papers count for more than a third of the total score. 4 Or the Shanghai Ranking, 60% of which is determined by publications and highly cited researchers. 5The QS Rankings count citations per faculty as a relatively low 20%. 6But the US News Best Global Universities ranking counts publication and citation related metrics as 60%.
Oransky et al. (Thu,) studied this question.