Created by Professor Henk Moed at CTWS, University of Leiden, Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field.
The impact of a single citation is given higher value in subject areas where citations are less likely, and vice versa.
It is defined as the ratio of a journal’s citation count per paper and the citation potential in its subject field. It aims to allow direct comparison of sources in different subject fields.
Citation potential is shown to vary not only between journal subject categories – groupings of journals sharing a research field – or disciplines (e.g., journals in Mathematics, Engineering and Social Sciences tend to have lower values than titles in Life Sciences), but also between journals within the same subject category. For instance, basic journals tend to show higher citation potentials than applied or clinical journals, and journals covering emerging topics higher than periodicals in classical subjects or more general journals.
SNIP corrects for such differences. Its strengths and limitations are open to critical debate. All empirical results are derived from the Scopus abstract and indexing database.
SNIP values are updated twice a year, providing an up-to-date view of the research landscape.
Finding SNIP
To find the SNIP indicator, go to: Library homepage (library.sun.ac.za) > Search > E-databases > Scopus > Click on Sources in the top horisontal menu bar
In the search box to the right, type the title of the journal e.g. African Journal of AIDS Research
