What is CiteIQ?
CiteIQ (Citation Intelligence Quotient) is an integrity-weighted citation metric that improves
upon traditional metrics like the h-index by accounting for author contribution position and
research integrity issues.
Mathematical Formula
For each paper, we calculate Weighted Citations:
Weighted Citations = Citations × Author Position Weight
Author Position Weights:
- Single author: 100%
- Two authors: First author 20%, Last author 80%
- Three or more authors: First author 20%, Last author 20%, Middle authors share 60%
Example: A middle author on a 5-author paper with 100 citations:
Middle authors = 5 - 2 = 3
Weight = 60% ÷ 3 = 20%
Weighted Citations = 100 × 0.20 = 20
CiteIQ-h: Largest number h such that the author has h papers
with at least h weighted citations each
CiteIQ-i10: Number of papers with at least 10 weighted citations
Comparison with h-index
The traditional h-index counts raw citations without considering author contribution.
A researcher has an h-index of h if they have h papers with at least h citations each.
Key Differences:
- Author Position: CiteIQ-h weights citations based on authorship position,
recognizing that first and last authors typically contribute more than middle authors
- Integrity Filtering: CiteIQ-h assigns zero weight to retracted papers and
papers in de-indexed journals, while h-index counts all citations regardless of validity
- Fairness: CiteIQ-h prevents inflation from being a middle author on
highly-cited papers where actual contribution may be minimal
Example: An author with 10 papers as middle author (each with 50 citations) would have:
h-index: 10 (all papers count equally)
CiteIQ-h: Likely lower, as middle author weight reduces effective citations
Why CiteIQ?
Addresses key limitations of traditional metrics:
- Academic Convention: Reflects the established norm in many fields where
first and last authors make primary intellectual contributions
- Gaming Resistance: Harder to inflate by simply adding one's name to
numerous collaborative papers
- Research Integrity: Automatically excludes retracted and fraudulent work
from the calculation
- Quality Over Quantity: Emphasizes meaningful contributions rather than
mere participation
- Transparency: Open-source calculation using publicly available data from
OpenAlex
Limitations
- Author position conventions vary by field (some fields use alphabetical ordering)
- Does not account for individual contribution statements or co-first authorships
- Dependent on accuracy of OpenAlex data and retraction/de-indexing databases
- May disadvantage researchers in fields with different authorship norms