Using Dimensions: Metrics

Dimensions uses several metrics to report research impact. The number of citations and the Altmetric Attention Score are both shown below each publication in a search, when available.

When viewing individual publications, metrics are shown on the right side of the screen. The metrics shown in Dimensions include citations, recent citations, Field Citation Ratio (FCR), Relative Citation Ratio (RCR), and Altmetric Attention Score.

Additionally, you can click on the Dimensions badge to get more information on the metrics of the publication.

You can sort the results of a search based on Relative Citation Ratio (RCR), Field Citation Ratio (FCR), citations, and Altmetric Attention Score using a drop-down menu above the results.

Field Citation Ratio (FCR)

The Field Citation Ratio (FCR) is a metric that compares the citations of a publication to other publications in the same subject area published at a similar time. The subject area of a publication is designated by Dimensions using Field of Research (FoR) codes. The FoR code(s) for a publication are determined using a machine learning program that categorizes the publication based on its content. More information about FoR can be found on the Dimensions website.

The FCR is calculated for publications published 2000 and later that are greater than 2 years old and have at least one FoR code. When articles have more than one FoR, the FCR is calculated for each FoR, and a geometric mean of the FCR is used to determine the overall FCR.

When the FCR is greater than 1.0, the article has more citations relative to comparable articles.

More information about FCR can be found on the Dimensions page on FCR.

Relative Citation Ratio (RCR)

The Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) is a metric similar to the FCR calculated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The RCR compares the citations of a publication to the citations of NIH-funded publications. Similar to FCR, the RCR compares articles in the same subject area published the same year. For RCR, the subject area is determined by the "co-citation network" of the article. The "co-citation network" is the network of publications that are cited by the same articles as the publication in question. More information about the co-citation network can be found in this article about RCR.

The RCR is calculated for all publications in PubMed that are greater than 2 years old.

When the RCR is greater than 1.0, the publication has more citations compared to other publications published in the same year that are cited in the same articles.

More information about RCR can be found on the Dimensions page on RCR.

Altmetric Attention Score

The Altmetric Attention Score is an alternative metric for measuring research impact. It incorporates a range of sources, such as news articles, videos, social media, patents, and policy documents. In this way, Altmetric Attention Scores measure the broader social impact of the publication. 

More information about Altmetric can be found in our Using Altmetric Guide.