Weak Relations among the Impact Factors, Number of Citations, References and Authors

Abstract

Relations among impact factors, references, citations and authors are studied based on the data collected in the field of field mechanics. The multiple regression analysis indicates that in the regression equation Tc = a = +b* x1 + c* x2 + c* x3, there is a statistically significant relation among the four variables; TC is the total number of citations received by an article; x1 is the impact factor of the journal in which the article has been published; x2 is the number of references in the article and x3 is the number of authors in that article. The distribution of citations follows closely a lognormal distribution and the distribution of authors follows a Poisson distribution. It has also been observed that the strength of the relations between references and citations, and impact factors and citations are very weak.