What is the Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)?

The Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) compares a work's citations to the world average for works of the same field, type and year — so 1.0 means exactly average.

The Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is a citation metric that compares the citations a work has received to the average for works of the same field, type and publication year. A value of 1.0 means a work was cited exactly as often as expected; 2.0 means twice as often.

Field-normalization matters because citation rates differ enormously between fields — a highly cited mathematics paper and a highly cited biomedical paper have very different raw counts. FWCI puts them on a comparable scale.

FWCI vs the h-index and raw counts

Unlike the h-index or raw citation counts, FWCI is comparable across disciplines and career stages, which makes it a more defensible indicator. It is still imperfect and should be read with context, not as a single verdict on quality.

Using FWCI on your CV (responsibly)

If you include metrics on a CV, a field-normalized indicator like FWCI is more responsible than a journal Impact Factor or a bare h-index — but DORA and the Leiden Manifesto are clear that metrics should support, not replace, expert judgement. SigmaCV keeps metrics off by default, opt-in, and field-normalized.

Read: using metrics responsibly

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