The citation merit of scientific publications

We propose a new method to assess the merit of any set of scientific papers in a given field based on the citations they receive. Given a citation indicator, such as the mean citation or the h-index, we identify the merit of a given set of n articles with the probability that a randomly drawn sample of n articles from a reference set of articles in that field presents a lower citation index. The method allows for comparisons between research units of different sizes and fields. Using a dataset acquired from Thomson Scientific that contains the articles published in the periodical literature in the period 1998-2007, we show that the novel approach yields rankings of research units different from those obtained by a direct application of the mean citation or the h-index.Ruiz-Castillo acknowledges financial help from the Spanish MEC through grant SEJ2007-67436. Crespo and Ortuño-Ortín also acknowledge financial help from the Spanish MEC through grant ECO2010-19596. This paper is produced as part of the project Science, Innovation, Firms and markets in a Globalised World (SCIFI-GLOW), a Collaborative Project funded by the European Commission's Seventh Research Framework Programme, Contract number SSH7-CT-2008-217436