FWCI was developed to enable comparison of citation performance across disciplines and time. An FWCI of 1.5 means an article has received 50% more citations than the average of comparable items globally. While field normalisation is methodologically preferable to raw counts or unnormalised journal metrics, FWCI still inherits database-dependence (Scopus coverage), classification assumptions (the field categorisation used as denominator) and aggregation pitfalls when averaged at researcher or institution level. Responsible-metrics guidance recommends FWCI be reported alongside underlying counts, with sample-size caveats.
References
- Elsevier SciVal documentation. Waltman L 'A review of the literature on citation impact indicators' Journal of Informetrics 2016.