Finding the pearls in your citation record

Shows you how to use the Publish or Perish software to present your academic citation record to its best advantage

Anne-Wil Harzing - (updated Mon 15 Dec 2025 14:46)

The most important realisation in presenting your case for tenure, promotion, or grant applications is that every case is different. We all have “pearls” in our research portfolio. You just need to find and polish them, so they shine brightly. Of course, sometimes you are prescribed to list a number of metrics, maybe total citation counts, or h-index, or your number of publications. However, even in that case you can always add additional information.

Over a decade ago, I had a colleague at the University of Melbourne – Maria Kraimer – whose total Google Scholar citation level was very similar to mine. Even now our total citations and citations per year are only 3-4% apart (see screenshots below). However, I would suggest two very different ways of presenting our records to our best advantage.

Ground-breaking contributions in top journals

As Maria, I would indicate that I had no less than five articles that have gathered more than 100 citations per year. I would also point out that three of my articles have gathered more than 3,000 citations and six more than 1,000 (see screenshot below), indicating they are truly ground-breaking.

I would also highlight that I had made these ground-breaking contributions very early in my career; seven of Maria’s eight most highly cited articles were published shortly after her PhD completion. They were also published in the field's top journals, which is a very impressive achievement.

I would probably not discuss co-authorship patterns in any detail as this is not a particular strength of Maria’s record. Many of her highly cited publications were co-authored and on average her papers have 3.5 authors. One could of course consider pointing to well-known co-authors, but this is a bit of a double-edged sword. To some readers this is a very positive sign, others might wonder about the academic’s own contribution.

I would also single out a recent article about Covid-19 (last line of the screenshot). Published in 2020, it is already Maria’s most cited article on a citations per year basis. Finally, I would mention my hA-index of 24, which means that I have published 24 articles that were cited at least 24 times per year, indicating a very significant body of enduringly highly cited research.

Sustained and single-authored contributions

As Anne-Wil, I would make a very different case, given that ,unlike Maria, I do not have any articles that could be considered ground-breaking, i.e. with very high citation levels. I do have four publications that have more than 1,000 citations, but only one of these is in my main research area (International Business). I would, however, indicate that I have a h-index of 72, a hI,annual of 2.00, and a hA-index of 25 (see screenshot below).

These metrics demonstrate the sustained nature of my contributions. I published no less than 72 articles with at least 72 citations, and on average I published two articles per year that - when corrected for the number of co-authors - acquired sufficient citations to be included in the h-index. My hA-index of 25 means that I have published 25 articles that were cited at least 25 times per year, indicating a very significant body of enduringly highly cited research.

In terms of authorship, I would point out that my most highly cited work is largely first or single-authored; on average my articles have fewer than two authors. I would also highlight that much of my highly-cited work was published in the second half of my career, thus indicating that my impact has not slowed down after being promoted to Professor in 2006. That said, I would probably emphasise too that my PhD thesis (Managing the Multinationals) has turned out to be quite influential, with nearly 650 citations.

Creating effective stories

As far as citations are concerned, both Maria and I can be considered high-performing academics. However, my story and that of Maria would be very different, despite our very similar citation levels. As I indicated in the introduction of my 2010 Publish or Perish book.

Citations are not only a reflection of the impact that a particular piece of academic work has generated. Citations can also be used to tell stories about academics, journals, and fields of research. This guide is meant to help you create effective stories.

So go ahead: find the pearls in your record, polish them and string them into a beautifully arranged necklace that presents your citation story effectively.

Earlier projects in this series

Publish or Perish is a Swiss army knife!

These are just a few of the hundreds of nuggets of quality information that you can find using the free Publish or Perish software. Are you interested in finding out more about how you can use the software to conduct effective author, journal, topic, and affiliation searches?

Do you want to learn how to use it for tenure or promotion applications, conducting literature reviews and meta-analyses, deciding where to submit your paper, preparing for job interviews, writing laudations or obituaries, finding reviewers or keynote speakers, uncovering “citation connections” between scholars, and doing bibliometric research?

To read about all of this and much much more, buy my brand-new guide in my Crafting your career in academia series: Using the Publish or Perish software. At 375 pages it is chock-full of tips and tricks on how to get the most out of the software. I promise you will discover at least a dozen use cases that you had never even thought about before!

Other books in the series

My book series Crafting your career in academia launched in August 2022 with a book on Writing Effective Promotion Applications. The series is a collection of short guides dealing with various aspects of working in academia. It is based on my popular blog.

Aug 2022:

Only £5.95...		 Nov 2022:

Only £5.95...		 Feb 2023:

Only £5.95...		 May 2023:

Only £5.95...

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Copyright © 2025 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Mon 15 Dec 2025 14:46

Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.

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