The CiteScore™ metrics advantage
More titles, available for free
Researchers, information professionals, research and institutional leaders, funders and publishers use CiteScore metrics to gain greater insight into research impact. Calculated using data from Scopus, CiteScore metrics help you evaluate journals, book series, conference proceedings and trade journals to empower well-informed decisions.
Using CiteScore metrics
As parts of a multi-dimensional array of metrics, CiteScore metrics can help to:
- Discover titles to create reading lists
- Acquire evidence about title relevance to and performance in a field
- Check the performance of one or more titles and decide where to submit an article for publication
- Analyze the citation impact of titles to be used in library acquisition decisions or for determining publication/portfolio strategies
- Validate tenure and promotion applications, as well as publishing decisions
- Determine research impact in a given field
Additionally, publishers and editors can monitor the performance of a title or a portfolio of titles, as well as monitor publishing trends from among competing titles.
CiteScore metrics: A family of eight metrics and useful features
An annual value that measures the citation impact of a title (i.e., journal, book series, conference proceeding or trade journal; includes special issues). Based on Scopus, it provides a measure of journal citation impact to 26,000 titles (in 2020), 13,000 more than the Impact Factor.
View our Scopus metrics training video
CiteScore metrics are freely available at www.Scopus.com/sources
CiteScore metrics benefits
| Fairer comparison among journals | Focusing on typically peer-reviewed publications only | Excluding influence of non-peer reviewed article types | Easier access to underlying data |
| Robust, stable assessment of journals
| Within the journal citation impact, older articles get their fuller citation impact | More robust assessment of citations to publications after their initial publication date | Longer citation window |
| Early citation impact indication for new titles (often open access) | New journals receive the first indication of their citation impact 1 year earlier (compared with the old CiteScore methodology) | More journals can be compared globally | Helps new journals demonstrate the citation impact of their publications sooner |
| Complies with the responsible metric principles of the Leiden Manifesto and DORA (among others) | Principle 4: Data collection and analytical processes should be open, transparent and simple | Principle 5: Titles evaluated must be allowed to verify data and analysis The underlying CiteScore data are freely available for verification purposes without a subscription to Scopus | Principle 10 of the Leiden Manifesto: Indicators must be scrutinized regularly and updated if necessaryCiteScore was launched in 2016; by 2020, we had revised the methodology based on expert and user feedback |
Gather more insights by comparing sources
Whether you want to decide where to submit your article for publication, evaluate your library collection or track the performance of your journal portfolio, comparing sources in Scopus is also freely available for you to use.
Learn more about comparing journals in this short video
Golden Rules for research metrics
Elsevier supports responsible research assessment. When used correctly, research metrics – together with qualitative input – give a balanced, multi-dimensional view for decision-making.
- Always use both qualitative and quantitative input into your decisions.
- Always use more than one research metric as your quantitative input.
CiteScore metrics are freely available on Scopus
Visit these websites for free access to CiteScore metrics:
Discover CiteScore metrics
CiteScore metrics are also available in SciVal and Pure, as well as integrated with ScienceDirect and Elsevier’s Journal Insights.
CiteScore metrics are supported by publishers
CiteScore is displayed on many journal homepages of publishers, including Springer-Nature, Taylor&Francis, Elsevier, Oxford University Press, MDPI, BMJ journals, SAGE, Walter de Gruyter, Hindawi, Emerald and IEEE.
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