What is Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) and how can I use it?
Answer
What is CNCI?
Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) is a metric developed by Clarivate Analytics that compares the citation performance of a publication to others in the same field, publication year, and document type.
It accounts for differences in citation behaviours across disciplines, making it possible to evaluate citation impact in context.
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A CNCI score of 1.00 means the publication has received the expected number of citations.
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A score above 1.00 means it has been cited more than expected.
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A score below 1.00 means it has been cited less than expected.
For example, a CNCI of 2.0 indicates that a paper has been cited twice as often as similar papers in the same field and year.
Why is CNCI useful?
CNCI is a powerful, normalised metric that supports responsible research evaluation. It offers several benefits:
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Cross-field comparison
CNCI adjusts for disciplinary differences in citation practices, enabling fairer comparisons between fields such as medicine, engineering, or social sciences. -
Contextualised impact
By considering publication type, age, and subject category, CNCI places citation counts in proper context—avoiding misleading raw comparisons. -
Supporting research evaluation
CNCI helps institutions, funders, and researchers assess the relative influence of research outputs over time. -
Highlighting strong performance
Researchers or institutions with a high average CNCI may be producing work with greater visibility or influence within their disciplines.
How is CNCI Calculated?
The CNCI is calculated by dividing the actual number of citations received by a publication by the expected number of citations for publications of similar type, age, and in the same category (i.e., research field or subfield).
The formula for CNCI is:
- CNCI > 1.00 indicates that the paper has received more citations than expected for its field.
- CNCI = 1.00 means the paper has received the expected number of citations for its field.
- CNCI < 1.00 means the paper has received fewer citations than expected for its field.
How can CNCI be used responsibly?
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Research Evaluation: CNCI is commonly used by institutions, funding bodies, and journals to assess the impact of research. Researchers can (with care) use CNCI to benchmark their own work and evaluate the collective impact of their research output.
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Institutional and National Rankings: CNCI is often used in institutional and national rankings to compare the research performance of universities and research organisations. It helps to identify institutions that produce highly impactful research, relative to their peers.
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Grant and Promotion Applications: CNCI can serve as evidence of research impact in applications for grants, promotions, or tenure. A high CNCI can be an indicator of a researcher’s or institution's strong academic performance, showing that their work has had a significant impact compared to others in their field.
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Identifying trends: Track CNCI over time to assess whether research influence is growing or shifting in certain areas.
📌 As with all metrics, CNCI should be interpreted in context and not used in isolation for evaluation or decision-making
Where can I find CNCI data?
Web of Science:
Web of Science shows CNCI for individual articles when available, based on global citation benchmarks within its subject categories.
InCites:
Clarivate’s research analytics platform, provides CNCI metrics at the level of:
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Individual authors
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Research groups or institutions
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Countries or subject areas
It enables in-depth benchmarking and trend analysis using Web of Science data.
📌 InCites also includes the Collab-CNCI metric, which highlights how collaborative publications perform relative to the field average—useful for assessing the value of research partnerships.
How to find CNCI in Web of Science and InCites
To find CNCI data for a specific paper, author, or institution in Web of Science, follow these steps:
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Log In to Web of Science using the link available via Library Search:
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Search for the Paper or Author:
- You can search by the title of a paper, the name of an author, or the name of an institution to find citation data.
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Review the CNCI Information:
- Once you have found the relevant paper or author, look at the citation overview for the CNCI score. If CNCI is available, Web of Science will display the value, indicating how the paper or author compares to the average citation count in their field.
- Once you have found the relevant paper or author, look at the citation overview for the CNCI score. If CNCI is available, Web of Science will display the value, indicating how the paper or author compares to the average citation count in their field.
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Use InCites for Further Analysis:
- For a more detailed analysis of CNCI at the institutional or author level, you can access InCites. It offers tools to examine CNCI data in the context of larger datasets, enabling benchmarking against other researchers or institutions.
- For a more detailed analysis of CNCI at the institutional or author level, you can access InCites. It offers tools to examine CNCI data in the context of larger datasets, enabling benchmarking against other researchers or institutions.
Further reading
For more details on CNCI, including how it is calculated and how to use it, you can refer to Clarivate’s detailed guide on CNCI in Web of Science and InCites:
👉 Clarivate CNCI Guide