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InCites by Clarivate: InCites Essential Science Indicators

What is InCites Essential Science Indicators?

InCites Essential Science Indicators (InCites ESI) is an analytical tool based on data from Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) in Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection, which allows you to identify top-performing research in WoS Core Collection.

Quick Start Video

How to access InCites ESI?

  1. You can access InCites ESI via this link or through 1-Search
  2. It is not necessary to have a Clarivate account to access InCites ESI. However, upon signing into your Clarivate account, you can:
    • save reports
    • save report selections; you can generate pre-defined reports based on updated data
    • create and share document collections
    • set up and manage folders to store reports, report selections, and document collections
  3. If you already have a Clarivate account, you can use it to log in to InCites ESI
  4. It is recommended to set up or log in to your Clarivate account within Lingnan University's network initially to enable roaming access
    • You can access InCites ESI from anywhere after enabling roaming access!

Getting Started with InCites ESI

Please click on the buttons in the menu to learn the basics of using InCites ESI.

Indicators

The "Indicators" page serves as the landing page for accessing InCites ESI and is where you can conduct analysis. On this page, you will find a map at the top and a table below it.

Modifying Results

By default, the map view displays the Top Papers by country/region, while the Indicators Table displays the Top Papers by research fields. You can modify them by:

Choosing an Entity for Analysis

  1. To select the entity for analysis, click on the dropdown menu under "Results List" on the left panel
  2. There are 6 different entities you can choose from: Research Fields, Authors, Institutions, Journals, Countries/Regions and Research Fronts.
    • Research Fronts: A cluster of highly cited papers over a five-year period, representing a specialized topic defined by cluster analysis

💡Note that changing the entity for analysis will not change the results in the map view, but only those in the table view

Adding Filters

  1. To apply filters to your result list, click on the "Add Filter" button under "Filter Results By" on the left panel
  2. Select the type of filter you wish to add. The types of available filters change depending on the entity you selected for analysis
  3. Then, search for the item you wish to filter in the search box under the "Add Filter" button

💡Note that changing the entity for analysis will not change the results in the map view, but only those in the table view; For more information about adding filters to your results in InCites ESI, please refer to this guide.

Selecting Paper Categories

  1. To change the paper category to display, click the dropdown menu under "Include Results For" on the left panel
  2. You can choose from:
    • Top Papers: Default display; which includes both   Highly Cited Papers and  Hot Papers
    •  Highly Cited Papers: papers that perform in the top 1% based on the number of citations received when compared to other papers published in the same field in the same year
    • Hot Papers: papers published in the last two years that are receiving citations quickly after publication. These papers have been cited enough times in the most recent bimonthly period to place them in the top 0.1% when compared to papers in the same field and added to the database in the same period

💡Note that both the map and table views will reflect the paper category you select.

Customizing Indicator Table

  1. You can also customize the display of result table by clicking "Customize" at the top-right corner of the table

Further Analyzing Results

After completing the modification of your results, you can further analyze the data by:

  1. On the table result, click on the entity that you wish to further drill into
  2. Then, you can view the Citation Trends and Document List of your selected entity:
    • Citation Trends: Helps you to track the research performance of your selected entity over time
    • Document: Lists all Top Papers,  Highly Cited Papers or Hot Paper (depending the paper category you select) associated with your selected entity. You can also click on the document title to view the document record within Web of Science.

Field Baselines

Field baselines are annualized expected citation rates for papers in a research field.

  1. To view the field baselines, click on the "Field Baselines" tab at the top of the page
  2. On the "Field Baselines" page, you can opt to view:
    • Citation Rates: average number of citations received by a group of papers published in one research field in a given year
    • Percentiles: A representation of the portion of papers in a research field that received at least a certain number of citations, which is useful for evaluating research impact. For example, if the 1.00% percentile value is 15, a paper in the same research field in the same year must receive at least 15 citations to belong to that percentile.
    • Field Rankings: A summary table for all ESI research fields, including the no. of papers, no. of citations, citations per paper, and no. of Highly Cited Papers
  • For more about Field Baselines, please refer to this guide.

Citation Thresholds

A citation threshold is the minimum number of citations obtained by ranking papers in a research field.

  1. To view the citation thresholds, click on the "Citation Thresholds" tab at the top of the page
  2. On the "Citation Thresholds" page, you can opt to view:
    • ESI Threshold: the no. of citations received by the top 1% of authors and institutions and the top 50% of countries and journals in a 10-year period
    • Highly Cited Thresholds: the minimum no. of citations received by the top 1% of papers from each of 10 database years
    • Hot Paper Thresholds: the minimum no. of citations received during the most recent two-month period by the top 0.1% of papers from the past two years
  • For more about Citation Thresholds, please refer to this guide.

Common Use Cases

There are several common use cases in InCites ESI, including:

Identify the research fields where an organization or author is Highly Cited

InCites ESI allows you to easily identify which research fields you or your organization (or any entities that you wish to analyze) are highly cited. Follow the steps below to conduct the analysis:

  1. Go the InCites ESI
  2. Select "Research Fields" under "Results List" on the left panel, which is the default setting
  3. Click on "Add Filter" and select Authors or Institutions (or any entities that you wish to analyze)
  4. Search for the name of the Author or Institution (e.g. Chan, TM or Lingnan University) in the search box under "Add Filter"
    • If you cannot find the name of interest appearing in the drop-down menu, this indicates that the author or institution is not highly cited in any ESI research field
  5. The Research Fields shown in the data table are the fields in which you or your institution are highly cited

Benchmark performance against peers within the same research field

  1. Follow step 1 - 5 in "Identify the research fields where an organization or author is Highly Cited"
  2. Mark the research fields you wish to use for peer benchmarking
  3. Then, switch the "Results List" from "Research Fields" to "Authors" or "Institutions"
  4. Then, click on "Add Filter" and select "Research Fields"
  5. Click on the Research Field you wish to use for peer benchmarking
  6. You will see a list of all Highly Cited Authors or Institutions within this field.
  7. To view the performance and rank of a specific author or institution, click on the header of the Author or Institution column
  8. Hover over "Filters" and then type the name of the author or institution you are looking for
  9. Then, you will see the overall performance and rank of the author or institution within that ESI field
    In the example below, Lingnan University is ranked 1244 out of 2182 globally in the field of "Social Sciences, General"

Finding Top-performing papers

  1. Go the InCites ESI
  2. Select the entity you wish to analyze under the Results List. For example, if you wish to find your own top papers, then select "Authors" in the Results List. If you are looking for top papers within your research field, select "Research Fields"
  3. Click on "Add Filter" and select the appropriate filter that fits your needs. For example, type your name to look for your own top papers or filter by your research field to find top papers within that particular field
  4. Then, on the result table, click on the name of the entity that you are looking for
  5. Afterwards, switch to "Documents" on the left panel, and you will see the list of top papers of that particular entity. You can also click on the document title to view the document record within Web of Science

For more common use cases for InCites ESI, please refer to this guide by Clarivate.

More about InCites ESI

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