Elsevier has announced the addition of a new Citation Tracker to be included as part of a subscription to its Scopus multidisciplinary indexing and abstract database. Designed for researchers to use in their daily tasks, the Citation Tracker runs analysis in real time on the live Scopus database to produce up-to-the-minute reports online. The reports can also be exported into Excel. Researchers can monitor who is citing their work or that of colleagues and potential collaborators, and they can monitor new or existing areas for research based on rates of citation. With the ability to go back 10 years, the tool is designed to fit into the workflow of a typical scientific researcher by providing a way to narrow a large result set into actionable data. Sorting options allow users to quickly hone in on particulars such as who is doing the citing and in what time frame – and self-citations can be easily identified. An enhancement soon to come is the ability to screen self-citations out of the report. In the “publish-or-perish” world of the academic market, this functionality added to Scopus is sure to be a big hit – and it has the potential to also attract corporate users in competitive analysis and recruiting.
