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Research Metrics

Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)

Discipline plays an important factor in addressing the balance of relatively high and low citation counts. Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) is a metric created by Leiden University's Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) and made freely available through the Centre's Journal Indicator Page

It measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field. It aims to allow direct comparison of sources in different subject fields (What is SNIP?, 2024)

Methodology

Essentially, "SNIP is the ratio of average citation count per paper and the citation potential of its subject field for a source." (What is SNIP?, 2024)

 

SNIP = a journal's raw impact per paper (RIP) / database citation potential of a journal (DCP)

(Modifications to SNIP, 2012)

 

Further information about the calculation of this metric and it's components, can be found in open access papers reporting the original development of the metric and some further refinements to it.