Differences in citation counts of radiology journals between citation databases

Citation counts relate to the scientific reach and measure the impact of articles, journals, and researchers [ [1] Kulkarni A.V. Aziz B. Shams I. Busse J.W. Comparisons of citations in web of science, Scopus, and Google scholar for articles published in general medical journals. JAMA-J Am Med Assoc. 2009; 302: 1092-1096 Crossref PubMed Scopus (417) Google Scholar ]. This metric is frequently used as evidence of academic advancement by faculty when applying for promotions. It is also an important metric to gauge a journal's reputation and impact [ [1] Kulkarni A.V. Aziz B. Shams I. Busse J.W. Comparisons of citations in web of science, Scopus, and Google scholar for articles published in general medical journals. JAMA-J Am Med Assoc. 2009; 302: 1092-1096 Crossref PubMed Scopus (417) Google Scholar ]. The most popular databases that record and index citations include Web of Science (WoS) (Clarivate, Philadelphia, PA), Scopus (Elsevier Inc., Amsterdam, Netherlands), and Google Scholar (GS) (Alphabet Inc., Mountain View, CA). WoS served as the sole citation data provider from the 1960s until 2004 when Scopus and GS were introduced [ [2] Falagas M.E. Pitsouni E.I. Malietzis G.A. Pappas G. Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: strengths and weaknesses. FASEB J. 2008; 22: 338-342 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1488) Google Scholar ]. As all three citation indexes use different methods to capture citations [ [3] Bakkalbasi N. Bauer K. Glover J. Wang L. Three options for citation tracking: Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science. Biomed Digit Libr. 2006; 3 (Jun 29): 7 Crossref PubMed Scopus (392) Google Scholar ], the purpose of this study was to analyze the differences between citation counts indexed by WoS, Scopus and GS for the four highest impact radiology journals, ranked by Journal Impact Factor (JIF), namely: Radiology, American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), Investigative Radiology, and European Radiology.