CitationImpact 📊

Turn your citations into compelling evidence for grants and promotions

Why I Built This

Hi academic folks! 👋

If you've ever written a grant proposal or prepared for a performance review, you know the struggle: you need to prove your research impact, but citation counts alone don't tell the whole story.

Reviewers want to know:

Who is citing your work? (Are they leading researchers?)
Where are the citations coming from? (Top universities? Industry labs?)
How is your work being used? (Building on your methods? Extending your ideas?)

I built CitationImpact to answer these questions automatically. Instead of manually digging through hundreds of citations, this tool analyzes them for you and generates a comprehensive impact report in minutes.

What It Does

CitationImpact analyzes your research citations and generates grant-ready impact statements:

📋 Grant Impact Summary – Copy-ready statements for proposals & tenure files
🏆 Highly-Cited Papers – Papers with 100+ citations that cite YOUR work
👥 High-profile scholars – Prominent researchers (by h-index & total citations) citing your work
🏛️ Institution breakdown – Universities (with QS/US News rankings), Industry, Government
📚 Venue quality – Top-tier journals/conferences (CORE, CCF, h-index rankings)
📈 Citation velocity – Track your impact over time with timeline visualization
🔗 Clickable links – Every author and paper is linked to their profile
💾 Smart caching – Never wait twice for the same analysis (user-controlled refresh)

Quick Start

1. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Run the Tool

./citation-impact

That's it! The interactive menu will guide you through the rest.

How to Use

Option 1: My Papers (Recommended)

Fastest way – uses your saved profile, minimal CAPTCHAs:

Run ./citation-impact
Go to Settings → Set your Google Scholar ID
Select "1. 📚 My Papers"
Pick any of YOUR papers from the list
Get your impact report instantly!

Option 2: Analyze Any Paper

Run ./citation-impact
Select "2. 🔍 Search Any Paper"
Enter any paper title
Wait a minute while it fetches and analyzes citations
Get your impact report!

Option 3: Browse Another Author's Papers

Want to analyze papers by someone else?

Select "3. 👤 Browse Other Authors"
Enter their Semantic Scholar ID or Google Scholar ID
Pick a paper from the list
Analyze it with one click

Pro tip: Save your own author ID in Settings so "My Papers" works instantly!

What You Get

After analyzing a paper, you'll see:

📋 Grant Impact Summary

Ready-to-use statements – Copy directly into grant proposals
Key metrics – High-profile scholars, QS Top 100, highly-cited papers
Quick copy text – One-liner for your CV or bio
Evidence table – Highly-cited papers (100+ citations) that cite you

Example output:

✨ Ready-to-Use Impact Statements:
1. Cited by 12 papers with 100+ citations, demonstrating adoption by high-impact research.
2. Recognized by 23 high-profile researchers (h-index ≥ 20), including scholars with h-index up to 87.
3. Adopted by researchers from 15 QS Top 100 universities worldwide.

📝 Quick Copy Text:
"This work has been cited 168 times, including by 23 high-profile researchers 
(h-index ≥ 20) from 15 QS Top 100 universities."

📄 All Citing Papers

See exactly WHO cites your work with clickable links
Citation counts for each citing paper (shows how cited THEY are)
Sort by year, citation count, or venue
View authors of any paper with one click

╭──────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┬────────┬────────────────────────┬────────┬─────╮
│ #    │ Paper (click)                           │  Year  │ Venue                  │  Cites │ 🌟  │
├──────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼────────┼────────────────────────┼────────┼─────┤
│ 1    │ Refining chatgpt-generated code...      │  2024  │ ACM Transactions on... │    175 │ ⭐  │
│ 2    │ Security weaknesses of copilot...       │  2025  │ ACM Transactions on... │     97 │ ⭐  │
╰──────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┴────────┴────────────────────────┴────────┴─────╯
⭐ = Influential citation

📊 Overview

Total citations and how many were analyzed
Number of influential citations (AI-detected)
High-profile scholars citing your work

👥 All Citing Authors

Every author with clickable profile links (Google Scholar / Semantic Scholar)
H-index with source indicator (e.g., 38 (GS) = from Google Scholar)
Total citations from their profile
Filter, sort, and export to CSV

╭──────┬────────────────────┬────────┬────────┬──────────────────────────────┬────────────╮
│    # │ Author (click)     │      H │  Cites │ Institution                  │ Type       │
├──────┼────────────────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────┼────────────┤
│    1 │ Xiaogang Wang      │    209 │  45000 │ Jiangnan University          │ education  │
│    2 │ C. Tantithamtha... │  38 GS │  12000 │ Monash University            │ education  │
│    3 │ Gaurav Gupta       │  18 GS │   3500 │ Senior Scientist, AWS-AI     │ company    │
╰──────┴────────────────────┴────────┴────────┴──────────────────────────────┴────────────╯

🏛️ Institution Breakdown

Universities – with QS/US News rankings (e.g., "MIT - QS #1")
Industry – Google, Microsoft, Meta, etc.
Government – NIH, DARPA, NASA, etc.

📚 Venue Analysis

Top journals/conferences citing your work
H-index rankings (Tier 1 = flagship venues)
CORE, CCF, iCORE rankings for CS venues

👥 All Citing Authors

Every author who cited your work with clickable profile links
H-index with source indicator (GS = Google Scholar, more accurate)
Total citations from their profile
Filter & sort by name, institution, h-index
Export to CSV for further analysis

📄 All Citing Papers

Every paper that cites you with clickable links
Citation counts ("Cited by X") for each paper
Year and venue metadata
Influential markers (⭐) for AI-detected impactful citations
Sort by year, citations, or venue

💡 Influential Citations

Papers that significantly build on your work
Citation contexts showing how they use your research
Clickable links to read them

🔍 Interactive Drill-Down

Click into any category to see full details
View all papers from a specific venue
See all scholars from a university
Explore citation contexts
Adaptive tables – automatically fit your terminal width

Configuration

Access settings via "3. Settings" in the main menu:

Setting	Description	Default
H-Index Threshold	Minimum h-index for "high-profile" scholars	20
Max Citations	How many citations to analyze	100
Data Source	`api`, `google_scholar`, or `comprehensive`	comprehensive
Email	For OpenAlex API (faster access)	None
API Key	Semantic Scholar key (optional, for higher rate limits)	None
Default Google Scholar ID	Your GS ID for "My Papers" feature	None
Default Semantic Scholar ID	Your S2 author ID (alternative)	None

Get API keys (optional but recommended):

Semantic Scholar: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
OpenAlex: Just add your email (no key needed)

Finding your Google Scholar ID:

Go to your Google Scholar profile
Look at the URL: scholar.google.com/citations?user=XXXXXXXXXX
Copy the XXXXXXXXXX part - that's your ID!

Smart Caching

CitationImpact automatically caches everything:

Analysis results → 7 days
Author profiles → 30 days (indexed by publications for better matching)
My Papers list → Permanent (you control when to refresh with r)

First analysis: ~60 seconds (fetching data)
Second analysis: ~1 second (from cache) ⚡

My Papers Cache

Your publications list is cached permanently until YOU decide to refresh:

✓ icon = Paper's analysis is already cached (instant results)
○ icon = Paper not yet analyzed
Press r to refresh your publications from Google Scholar

Cache is stored in .citationimpact/ in your project folder. You can view statistics and clear it via Settings → 8. Data Location & Cache.

Python API

If you prefer scripting:

from citationimpact import analyze_paper_impact

result = analyze_paper_impact(
    paper_title="Your Paper Title",
    h_index_threshold=20,
    max_citations=100,
    email="your.email@edu"  # Recommended for faster API
)

# Access results
print(f"High-profile scholars: {len(result['high_profile_scholars'])}")
print(f"Top-tier venues: {result['venues']['top_tier_percentage']:.1f}%")

for scholar in result['high_profile_scholars'][:5]:
    print(f"- {scholar['name']} (h={scholar['h_index']}) - {scholar['affiliation']}")

Example Output

📊 Impact Analysis Results
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Paper: Refining ChatGPT-Generated Code: Characterizing and Mitigating Code Quality Issues

📈 Overview
  Total Citations           168
  Citations Analyzed        100
  High-Profile Scholars      23
  Influential Citations      12

🏛️ Institution Summary
  ┌────────────┬───────┬─────────┐
  │ Type       │ Count │ Percent │
  ├────────────┼───────┼─────────┤
  │ University │    74 │   74.7% │
  │ Industry   │     4 │    4.0% │
  │ Government │     3 │    3.0% │
  │ Other      │    18 │   18.2% │
  └────────────┴───────┴─────────┘

📚 Top Citing Venues
  1. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering (5 citations) • Tier 1 • CCF A
  2. IEEE Software (3 citations) • Tier 2 • CORE A
  3. ICSE 2024 (2 citations) • Tier 1 • CORE A* • CCF A

👥 High-Profile Scholars (Top 5)
  ┌────┬──────────────────┬────────┬────────┬─────────────────────────┐
  │  # │ Author (click)   │      H │  Cites │ Institution             │
  ├────┼──────────────────┼────────┼────────┼─────────────────────────┤
  │  1 │ John Doe         │     87 │  45000 │ Stanford University     │
  │  2 │ Jane Smith       │  65 GS │  32000 │ MIT                     │
  │  3 │ Bob Johnson      │  54 GS │  18000 │ Google Research         │
  └────┴──────────────────┴────────┴────────┴─────────────────────────┘
  (GS) = H-index from Google Scholar (more accurate)

Data Sources

CitationImpact supports three modes:

1. API Mode (Fast)

Fast – No CAPTCHAs, reliable
AI-powered – Detects influential citations automatically
Sources: Semantic Scholar + OpenAlex
Best for: Regular use, large citation counts

2. Google Scholar Mode

Comprehensive – Finds papers not in Semantic Scholar
Direct URL access – Uses profile links to minimize CAPTCHAs
Best for: Papers missing from APIs

3. Comprehensive Mode (Recommended) ⭐

Best of both – Uses ALL available sources
Smart fallbacks: S2 → GS → Crossref → ORCID → DBLP
Google Scholar for author profiles (more accurate h-index & citations)
Semantic Scholar for paper data (API = no CAPTCHAs)
Direct navigation – Uses GS profile URLs to avoid search CAPTCHAs
Author matching – Deduplicates by publication overlap

Data Flow in Comprehensive Mode:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ YOUR GS PROFILE (My Papers)                                 │
│ → Direct URL access, no search needed                       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CITATION PAGE (via cites_id)                                │
│ → Paper titles, author profile links, "Cited by X" counts   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ AUTHOR PROFILES                                             │
│ 1. Google Scholar (if GS ID available) → h-index, citations │
│ 2. Semantic Scholar API (fallback) → author ID              │
│ 3. Match by publications if names differ                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Switch modes in Settings → 3. Data Source.

Venue & University Rankings

CitationImpact automatically enriches results with rankings:

Venue Rankings

H-index tiers – Works for any field (Tier 1 = h-index > 100)
CORE – Computer Science conference rankings (A*, A, B, C)
CCF – China Computer Federation rankings
iCORE – International CORE rankings

University Rankings

QS World Rankings – Top 1,500 universities
US News Global Rankings – Alternative rankings
Automatic matching – Handles aliases (e.g., "MIT" = "Massachusetts Institute of Technology")

Rankings data is in data/ folder. Update anytime:

python data/update_qs_rankings.py
python data/update_core_rankings.py
python data/update_usnews_rankings.py

Use Cases

📝 Grant Proposals

Show reviewers:

Citations from QS Top 10 universities
Adoption by researchers with h-index > 50
Publications in CORE A* venues
Cross-sector impact (academia + industry + government)

🎓 Tenure & Promotion

Demonstrate:

Quality over quantity (influential citations)
Recognition by leading scholars
Impact in top-tier venues
International reach

📊 Progress Reports

Quantify:

Growth in citations from prestigious institutions
Methodological influence (papers building on your work)
Breadth across research communities

Project Structure

CitationImpact/
├── citation-impact              # Main executable (run this!)
├── README.md                    # You are here
├── requirements.txt             # Python dependencies
├── .citationimpact/            # Your data (auto-created)
│   ├── config.json             # Settings & API keys
│   ├── cache/                  # Analysis results (7 days)
│   ├── author_cache/           # Author profiles (30 days, indexed by publications)
│   │   └── _index.json         # Publication-based author matching index
│   └── publications_cache/     # My Papers list (permanent until refresh)
├── citationimpact/             # Source code
│   ├── core/                   # Analysis engine
│   ├── clients/                # API clients
│   │   ├── unified.py          # Semantic Scholar + OpenAlex
│   │   ├── hybrid.py           # Comprehensive mode (all sources)
│   │   ├── google_scholar.py   # Google Scholar scraping
│   │   ├── crossref.py         # DOI & venue lookup
│   │   ├── orcid.py            # Author affiliations
│   │   └── dblp.py             # CS publication data
│   ├── ui/                     # Terminal interface
│   │   ├── app.py              # Main menu & navigation
│   │   ├── analysis_view.py    # Results display
│   │   ├── drill_down.py       # Detailed views
│   │   └── settings.py         # Configuration UI
│   └── utils/                  # Rankings, institutions, etc.
├── data/                       # Ranking datasets
│   ├── university_rankings/    # QS, US News data
│   └── venues_rankings/        # CORE, CCF, iCORE data

Troubleshooting

Cache Not Working?

Check .citationimpact/cache/ folder exists
View cache stats: Settings → 8
Clear corrupted cache: Settings → 8 → Clear cache
Cache saves after successful analysis (not during errors)

Rate Limits?

Add your email: Settings → 4
Get Semantic Scholar API key: Settings → 5
Use cached results when available

Paper Not Found?

Try exact title from Semantic Scholar or Google Scholar
Use "Browse Author Papers" instead (option 2)
Switch to Google Scholar mode if paper is very new

Google Scholar CAPTCHAs?

Use "My Papers" – Direct profile access = fewer CAPTCHAs
Browser stays open – Solve once, then it remembers you for the session
Comprehensive mode – Uses direct URLs from your profile (no search needed!)
Switch to API mode if you don't need GS data
Use cached results when available

Advanced: Python API

For scripting or integration:

from citationimpact import analyze_paper_impact

# Basic usage
result = analyze_paper_impact(
    paper_title="Your Paper Title",
    h_index_threshold=20,
    max_citations=100,
    email="[email protected]"
)

# Access results
scholars = result['high_profile_scholars']
venues = result['venues']['rankings']
institutions = result['institutions']

# With caching (default)
result = analyze_paper_impact(
    paper_title="Your Paper Title",
    use_cache=True  # Second run returns instantly
)

# Force fresh data
result = analyze_paper_impact(
    paper_title="Your Paper Title",
    use_cache=False  # Ignore cache
)

Requirements

Python 3.8+
Internet connection
No browser needed (pure API/scraping)

pip install -r requirements.txt

Main dependencies:

requests – HTTP requests
rich – Beautiful terminal UI
pandas – Data processing
scholarly – Google Scholar (optional)

Privacy & Data

All processing is local – No external servers except public APIs
API keys stored locally – In .citationimpact/config.json
Cache is yours – Stored in your project folder
No tracking – We don't collect any data

APIs used:

Semantic Scholar (public academic graph)
OpenAlex (open bibliographic data)
Google Scholar (optional, for comprehensive coverage)

Contributing

Found a bug? Have an idea? Open an issue or PR!

Areas for contribution:

Additional ranking sources (THE, ARWU, etc.)
Export formats (PDF, LaTeX, CSV)
Web interface
Better citation context analysis

License

Acknowledgments

Built with:

Cursor – AI-powered code editor
Claude – AI pair programming assistant

Data Sources:

Semantic Scholar – Academic paper graph & citations
OpenAlex – Open bibliographic data
Google Scholar – Comprehensive citation data
Crossref – DOI & publication metadata
ORCID – Author identification & affiliations
DBLP – Computer science bibliography

Special thanks to the open-source community and all these amazing services that make academic data accessible.

Happy analyzing! 🚀

Remember: Citation metrics are one piece of the puzzle. Always interpret them alongside qualitative assessments of your research.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 4 Commits
assets		assets
citationimpact		citationimpact
data		data
scripts		scripts
README.md		README.md
citation-impact		citation-impact
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
setup.py		setup.py

yueyueL/CitationImpact

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CitationImpact 📊

Why I Built This

What It Does

Quick Start

1. Install Dependencies

2. Run the Tool

How to Use

Option 1: My Papers (Recommended)

Option 2: Analyze Any Paper

Option 3: Browse Another Author's Papers

What You Get

📋 Grant Impact Summary

📄 All Citing Papers

📊 Overview

👥 All Citing Authors

🏛️ Institution Breakdown

📚 Venue Analysis

👥 All Citing Authors

📄 All Citing Papers

💡 Influential Citations

🔍 Interactive Drill-Down

Configuration

Smart Caching

My Papers Cache

Python API

Example Output

Data Sources

1. API Mode (Fast)

2. Google Scholar Mode

3. Comprehensive Mode (Recommended) ⭐

Venue & University Rankings

Venue Rankings

University Rankings

Use Cases

📝 Grant Proposals

🎓 Tenure & Promotion

📊 Progress Reports

Project Structure

Troubleshooting

Cache Not Working?

Rate Limits?

Paper Not Found?

Google Scholar CAPTCHAs?

Advanced: Python API

Requirements

Privacy & Data

Contributing

License

Acknowledgments

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