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Find influential publications

In short: Use three map types to find a field's key publications. A Citation map shows which publications your corpus cites most. A Co-citation map of Cited Publications shows the foundations, including classics that aren't in your corpus yet. A Bibliographic Coupling map of Publications shows the current research fronts. All three need reference data, which you fetch once per project with Fetch reference data.

Before you start​

Which map finds which publications?​

You wantMap typeUnitAsk in the Map queries bar
The most cited publications in your corpusCitationPublications"Which publications are most cited in this literature?"
The intellectual foundationsCo-citationCited Publications"What are the intellectual foundations of this field?"
Schools of thoughtCo-citationCited Publications or Cited Authors"Which schools of thought divide this field?"
The current research frontBibliographic CouplingPublications"Which publications form the current research front?"
Older publications still in useCitationPublications"Which older publications are still being cited today?"
A reading orderCitation or Co-citationPublications"In what order should I read the key publications?"
Overlooked publicationsCitation or Bibliographic CouplingPublications"Which publications in this corpus have gone unnoticed?"

Co-citation or bibliographic coupling? Co-citation links two publications that later publications cite together, so it looks back at the foundations. Bibliographic coupling links two publications that cite the same earlier publications, so recent publications group together straight away. Use co-citation for the canon and coupling for what people are working on now.

1. Build the map​

  1. Open the Research Maps tab.
  2. Type one of the questions above into the Map queries bar and click Map this question.
  3. In "How do you want to answer this?", pick the option marked Recommended and click Explore with map.
  4. If SciNodes says reference data is missing, click Fetch reference data, wait for it to finish, then build the map again.

To set the type and unit yourself, use Expert Mode: choose the Map Type, open its settings (for example Co-citation Settings), pick the Unit of Analysis (such as Publication or Cited publication), then click Plot Map.

Details: Create a map from a question · Expert Mode · Building a map

2. Size nodes by influence​

On citation-based maps, nodes are often the same size until you choose what size measures.

  1. Open the configuration panel and expand Node Config.
  2. Click Weightage and pick a metric:
MetricMap typesShows
In-degree (citation count)CitationTimes a publication is cited by others in the map
Co-citationsCo-citationHow often a publication is cited together with others
ReferencesBibliographic CouplingHow much reference ground a publication covers, which tends to surface reviews
Betweenness centralityCo-citation, Bibliographic CouplingPublications that bridge separate groups
Eigenvector centralityCo-citation, Bibliographic CouplingPublications linked to other important publications

Citation counts on a map count only citations inside your corpus.

Details: Reading a map · Map controls and styling

3. Inspect the key publications​

  1. Click a large node to open the selection panel. It shows the publication's details and metrics.
  2. Review its Cited publications and Cited by lists. When SciNodes can match the publication in the catalog, the header shows its count across the scholarly record, with the count inside your map beside it.
  3. Click a cluster to see its top nodes. On a co-citation map, each cluster is an Intellectual Base. On a coupling map, each cluster is a Research Front.
  4. Click Chat about this … to ask a research assistant why the publication or cluster matters.

4. Add missing classics to your corpus​

Your corpus rarely holds everything a key publication cites, or everything that cites it. To bring those publications in:

  1. Select a publication node on a Citation or Co-citation map of publications.
  2. Open Cited publications and click Add N cited publications to corpus (Citation maps only), or open Cited by and click Add N citing publications to corpus. For very large sets the button reads "Add top N of M …".
  3. When SciNodes reports "Corpus extended — regenerate the map to see the new structure.", rebuild the map.

If you see "All of those publications are already in your corpus.", there's nothing new to add.

Details: Corpus expansion · Selecting, merging and excluding

5. Read and keep the best ones​

  • Open a publication and use View PDF, Fetch PDF or Upload PDF to read it. See Read, annotate and collect evidence.
  • Click RIF it to collect it in Research in Formation, or Write Note to note why it matters.
  • Put your shortlist in a library folder, then cite it. See Write with citations.

Tips​

  • Build a co-citation map and a coupling map of the same corpus side by side. Together they show where the field came from and where it's going.
  • To focus on recent research fronts, add a corpus slice for the last five years in Expert Mode. See Corpus slices.
  • Watch for the Retracted badge. Ask "Is any of this literature built on retracted publications?" to check your foundations.

FAQ​

Why is my citation map empty?​

Citation, co-citation and bibliographic coupling maps need reference data. Run Fetch reference data once for the project, then build the map again. See Empty maps and reference data.

How do I find the most cited publications in my field?​

Build a Citation map of Publications and set Weightage to In-degree (citation count). Large nodes are the publications your corpus cites most.

Why does a co-citation map show publications I don't have?​

Co-citation nodes are the publications your corpus cites, so they include classics outside your corpus. That's what makes the map good at finding foundations you haven't collected yet.

What is a research front?​

A research front is a group of recent publications that cite the same earlier publications. Bibliographic coupling maps show research fronts as clusters.