Field-Weighted Citation Impact

The Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is the ratio of citations actually received by the articles published in a journal, and the average number of citations received by all other similar publications. A Field-Weighted Citation Impact of:

• 1.00 means that the journal performs exactly as expected according to the global average in its field;
• more than 1.00 means that the journal is cited more than expected according to the global average in its field; e.g. an FWCI of 1.34 means that the journal is 34% more cited than expected;
• less than 1.00 means that the journal is cited less than expected according to the global average in its field; e.g. an FWCI of 0.88 means that the journal is 12% less cited than expected.

So the Field-Weighted Citation Impact takes into account the differences in research behaviour across disciplines and the FWCI value answers the question of whether a journal is cited above or below the global average in its particular field. Note that the FWCI is calculated using data from the Scopus database.