How economic variables influence citations?

Abstract

This paper explores the influence of select economic variables on total citations and citations per document as obtained from Scopus from 2016 to 2018. The analysis considered 32 countries that contribute 90% of the scholarly output. Variables considered in the study included citations, citable documents, total expenditure on R&D per capita ($), researchers in R&D per capita, GDP (PPP) per capita and university education index. Based on multiple regression equation, the output broadly confirms the earlier observation of citation intensity going with wealth intensity of nations. However, on closer examination based on the obtained regression equation, aberration between expected and obtained total citations and citations per document could be observed for India and several other countries. The paper sees a need to include a taxonomy of motivations to cite and contributor taxonomy to make the citation measures meaningful.