Numerous databases and platforms now tell you how many times an article has been cited (i.e. included in a subsequent publication’s list of references) including:

• Google Scholar
• Scopus
• Web of Science
• ProQuest

However, you will notice that the number is likely to be different across different databases or platforms. This is because each citation count only includes what is indexed by that specific database or platform. So the number of citations in Scopus, which only indexes peer-reviewed content, is likely to be lower that the number of citations in Google Scholar, which also includes broader information types such as technical reports, books and dissertations. Depending on your purposes, you may wish to follow up citing documents in a number of databases or platforms, for a more thorough look at how the article has been received, discussed and used since its publication.