ABSTRACT: A method proposed in 1976 by F. Narin and collaborators for assessing the ‘influence weight’ of journals is re-interpreted as a potential citation-based indicator of the impact of scientific and other publications which would allow for comparisons between publication types (e.g. regular articles, notes, books) and disciplines, whose practitioners typically exhibit radically different citation behaviors. This Index of New Knowledge (INK) is a dimensionless fraction, with the number of references in the paper to be evaluated + 1 as the denominator, and the number of citations accumulated during a certain period after publication as the numerator. Application examples are provided, covering different disciplines, and the pros and cons of INK are discussed and contrasted with the widely-used journal impact factor.
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