Comparison of scientific impact expressed by the number of citations in different fields of science

Abstract

Citation distributions for 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2001, which were published in the 2004 report of the National Science Foundation, USA, are analyzed. It is shown that the ratio of the total number of citations of any two broad fields of science remains close to constant over the analyzed years. Based on this observation, normalization of total numbers of citations with respect to the number of citations in mathematics is suggested as a tool for comparing scientific impact expressed by the number of citations in different fields of science. Copyright © 2005 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.