Currently, “ ‘Most citations are classified as “mentions”, because the classifier is trained to be cautious …' says Colavizza, who is a user of the platform and whose team has analyzed data from the start-up in the past”. To reflect this, Scite displays confidence levels for classifications and offers opportunities to flag misclassified cites. The algorithm which classifies citation statements as supporting, mentioning, or contrasting is still evolving. This can help users quickly check reference libraries for papers, the findings of which have been contrasted. The Scite Zotero plug-in offers access to the Scite data, embedded in a reference library and regularly updated with information on citation statements to saved articles. The Scite browser plug-in provides context and insights across databases and platforms, so long as the underlying metadata is present. Publications posted on nonpublisher websites or stored in personal reference libraries may lack updated information and context, for example, links to errata or retraction notices.
Librarians should keep up with these developments to prepare for questions from their research communities. Smart citations add one more way to evaluate articles in the broader context of research and scholarly communication. Scite smart citations are beginning to appear on databases, including EuropePMC, and journal websites.
In the desktop version of Zotero, the Scite plug-in displays columns with counts of supporting, contrasting, and mentioning citation statements. We and our researchers could benefit from using tools like Scite to contextualize these counts. The plethora of LibGuides on research impact and citation counts, among other metrics, suggests librarians are highly engaged in this space, that faculty seek new ways to demonstrate their impact, and that administrators and funders are keenly interested in tools to evaluate faculty and funded researchers. Yet, this count is used to determine the impact of scholarship (i.e., ). Ultimately, citation count alone does not show how or why an article is being referenced.
It is important to note here that, because “(a) scite classifies citation statements at the level of the claim, not the full paper, and (b) the citing article making the contradicting claim itself could be without merit,” “a contradicting citation statement does not necessarily mean the cited paper is wrong”. The use and citation of disputed articles can impact research trends, clinical practice, and patient health and well-being. Alternatively, an article may be cited often because the results are repeatedly being overturned. Perhaps the highly cited article clearly describes an established method or best practices and is commonly mentioned in methods sections (e.g., ). Each citation statement, no matter where it appears in the citing article or whether it provides supporting or contrasting evidence, counts equally as 1.Ī highly cited article may be a seminal paper cited by all related articles in the introduction to be taken seriously by reviewers.
Faculty and researchers are evaluated on their scholarly works, and citation counts are often included in tenure packets.Ĭitation count is a unidimensional metric. In reference consultations and library instruction sessions, I have learned that students use citation counts to select articles.
Academic search engines might use citation counts in relevancy ranking algorithms. SCITE AIMS TO CONTEXTUALIZE THE CITATION COUNTĬitation counts are commonly used to determine the impact of articles or bodies of work. Scite can be used by researchers to locate evidence and evaluate references librarians to enhance research impact projects publishers and editors to check reference lists of submissions and journals, publishers, and databases to create context and showcase impact. Additional tools include reports and dashboards, badges, and automated reference checks.
Users can search the website and install plug-ins for browsers Chrome and Firefox and reference management tools such as Zotero. Scite also provides a count of editorial notices for each article. The Scite database contains over 800 million citation statements tagged by a machine learning algorithm as supporting, mentioning, or contrasting the findings of cited articles and by their locations in the citing articles (introduction, results, methods, discussion, or other). Scite ( ) was founded by Josh Nicholson and Yuri Lazebnik and previously funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).