Universality of citation distributions: Toward an objective measure of scientific impact

Radicchi, F, Fortunato, S, Castellano, C
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105,  17268 - 17272 (2008)
Times cited: 215

Abstract

We study the distributions of citations received by a single
publication within several disciplines, spanning broad areas of
science. We show that the probability that an article is cited c times
has large variations between different disciplines, but all
distributions are rescaled on a universal curve when the relative
indicator c(f) = c/c(0) is considered, where c(0) is the average number
of citations per article for the discipline. In addition we show that
the same universal behavior occurs when citation distributions of
articles published in the same field, but in different years, are
compared. These findings provide a strong validation of cf as an
unbiased indicator for citation performance across disciplines and
years. Based on this indicator, we introduce a generalization of the h
index suitable for comparing scientists working in different fields.