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Boost your academic profile: Track Citations to Your Outputs

Tips to help get your work seen and cited

Citation tracking using Scopus

If your output is published in a journal or book included in the Scopus database, it is very easy to track citations to your output. You can also set alerts so that when new citations are recorded, you receive an email with details of the most recent citations. 

Scopus is also useful for analysing who is citing your work as well as counting citations. 

A screenshot from the Scopus database showing the number of citations for an output and a link to create an alert

Citation tracking using Dimensions

University of Reading staff and students only have access to the free content and tools in the Dimensions database. 

The Dimensions database will give a citation count and other citation-related metrics for outputs. Search by author, title or DOI. 

A screenshot from the Dimensions database showing citation metrics for an output

Citation tracking using Google Scholar

Google Scholar will collate citations to outputs. However, these may not be as accurate as some of the curated databases. Google Scholar may be useful to get some idea of citations for outputs such as books, reports etc that may not be included in some commercial databases. 

Citation tracking using Web of Science

You can track citations to your outputs using the Web of Science database. The database covers a curated list of sources. 

Search for your output via name or DOI and the number of citations will be displayed. You can create a citation alert so that you are notified if a new citation is recorded. 

A screenshot from the WOS database showing the number of citations for an output and link to create a citation alert

Citation tracking using OpenAlex

OpenAlex indexes 230 million scholarly works and ca be used for tracking citations to outputs. University of Reading staff and students have access to the free version of the database. The citation information also includes the FWCI calculation and a citation percentile by year and subfield.