FWCI (Field-Weighted Citation Impact) measures how well cited a publication is compared to similar publications. Unlike traditional citation metrics that focus solely on the number of citations, FWCI takes into account the specific field of study and the relative citation patterns within that field.
FWCI is limited to Scopus-indexed publications. You can find FWCI in Scopus or other Elsevier products like SciVal.
The FWCI value of an article is determined based on the ratio of the number of citations an article receives to the expected number of citations for similar articles globally. These “similar” articles are identified based on factors like publication year, document type, and subject field. An FWCI of 1 indicates that your article performs just as expected for the global average. A score greater than 1 means your article is more cited than expected according to the global average, while a score below 1 suggests it is cited less than expected according to the global average.
The FWCI value of an author is calculated by taking the average FWCI scores of all their publications over a certain time period. An author-level FWCI greater than 1 means the author’s publications are cited more than the global average for similar works.
You can read calculation documentation of FWCI via this link https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/28192/supporthub/scival/
Let's explore how to obtain the FWCI of an Article.
Step 1: Access Scopus via this link: SCOPUS
Step 2: Under the Documents tab, search for an article using the article title.
Step 3: Click on the article in the list of results to access the article record.
Step 4: You will be able to find the FWCI of the article right next to the Citations in Scopus.
Let's explore how to obtain the FWCI of a Author.
Step 1: Access Scopus via this link: SCOPUS
Step 2: Under the Authors tab, search for the author's name.
Step 3: Select the Author from the results to access the Scopus Author Profile.
Step 4: On the Scopus Author Profile page, click on View all metrics to access the FWCI of the Author.
Step 5: Scroll all the way down to the section on FWCI. Do note that this figure provided by Scopus is the 10 year FWCI.
To obtain your FWCI over a specific time period, use SciVal instead.
Let's go back to the Scopus Author Profile page and explore how we can access SciVal from there.
Step 1: Click on Analyze author in SciVal in the FWCI section of Scopus Author Profile to go directly to Author Summary page in SciVal.
Step 2: In the Author Summary page in SciVal, select year range from the dropdown menu on the left to obtain the corresponding FWCI.
Step 3: To obtain FWCI of desired time period, go to the Compare Module where you can also perform benchmarking and comparison across time, subjects, peers, and institutions. The time period is adjustable using a time bar. You can specify desired metrics by clicking on Add metric and choose metrics from the dropdown menu. In the example below, Scholarly Output, FWCI and FWCI excluding self-citations were selected.
Additional Tip!
In the Author Summary, you can scroll down to view top 5 topics based on your scholarly output and their corresponding FWCI. This gives you an idea if the topic you are writing in can help you boost your FWCI.
You can also find out which are your better performing publications with higher FWCIs.
We wish to thank A/P Teo Wei Peng for allowing us to use his author profile as illustrations.