On the time evolution of received citations, in different scientific fields: An empirical study

The time evolution of mean received citations is calculated on a sample of journals from two ISI subject categories (“Chemistry, multidisciplinary”, ISI Science Edition, and “Management”, ISI Social Science edition) with the use of an original methodology. Mean received citations are plotted against the time gap in years existing between publication of the cited article and received citations. For most Chemistry journals in the sample the maximum number of average received citations occurs two years after publication, and then a decrease is experimented. Some peculiar cases present a different trend. Management journals, conversely, do not present in most cases a peak of citations: average received citations instead grow from year of publication to the age of 10 years (maximum time gap studied). A subsample of journals show similar results for longer time series (up to 23 years). Medians of average received citations per year partly show a similar behavior. Results suggest that citedness follows very different trends in very different fields, and partly suggest why differences in Journal Impact Factor exist between different categories. At the end of the work conclusions are drawn, together with suggestions for future research.