Citation analysis is the examination of the frequency, patterns and graphs of citations in articles and books.^[1][2] It uses citations in scholarly works to establish links to other works or other researchers. It is one of the most widely used methods of bibliometrics. Automated citation analysis has changed the nature of the research allowing millions of citations to be analyzed for large scale patterns.

Co-citation coupling and bibliographic coupling are specific kinds of citation analysis.

Issues raised by electronic publishing

Due to the unprecedented growth of electronic resource (e-resource) availability, one of the questions currently being explored is, "how often are e-resources being cited in my field?"^[3] For instance, there are claims that on-line access to computer science literature leads to higher citation rates,^[4] however, humanities articles may suffer if not in print.

Notes

1. ^ Rubin, Richard E. Foundations of Library and Information Science 2nd ed. New York: Neal-Schuman, 2004.
2. ^ Garfield, E. Citation Indexing - Its Theory and Application in Science, Technology and Humanities Philadelphia:ISI Press, 1983.
3. ^ Zhao, Lisa. "How Librarian Used E-Resources--An Analysis of Citations in CCQ." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 42(1) (2006): 117-131.
4. ^ Lawrence, Steve. Online or Invisible. Nature volume 411 (number 6837) (2001): 521. Also online at http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/online-nature01/