fCite: a fractional citation tool to quantify an individual’s scientific research output

ABSTRACT Here, I present the fCite web service ( fcite.org ) a tool for the in-depth analysis of an individual’s scientific research output. While multiple existing tools (e.g., Google Scholar, iCite, Microsoft Academic) focus on the total number of citations and the H-index, I propose the analysis of the research output by considering multiple metrics to provide greater insight into a scientist’s multifaceted profile. The most distinguishing feature of fCite is its ability to calculate fractional scores for most of the metrics currently in use. Thanks to the division of citations (and RCR scores) by the number of authors, the tool provides a more detailed analysis of a scholar’s portfolio. fCite is based on PUBMED data (~18 million publications), and the statistics are calculated with respect to ORCID data (~600,000 user profiles).