This is a proxy of the impact and quality of the scientific work done by institutions, on average per publication. Citations per Paper is used in our University Rankings by Region (Arab Region, Latin America, Asia, Europe), as well as in our Subject Rankings.
In University Rankings by Region, a minimum of 100 papers is required to be evaluated in the Citations per Paper indicator. This is applied to eliminate anomalous low numbers of papers from overly benefiting small institutions. Also, there are paper thresholds per subject in our Subject Rankings.
Both citations and papers are processed within our regular procedures, excluding faculty area normalization in Subject Rankings.
Additionally, in Subject Rankings citations yielded by papers published in niche journals (with only one ASJC code attributed by Elsevier) carry extra (double) weight. On the top of that, institutions with low paper counts have reduced citation count on a sliding scale up to 10 times the paper threshold for a specific subject.