Which fields have short citation half-lives?

Physics and computer science have citation half-lives of 5–7 years; biomedical science 8–10 years; social sciences 10–15 years; mathematics and classics may exceed 30 years. Citing older literature is more acceptable in humanities than in fast-moving lab sciences.

How is citation half-life calculated?

Citation half-life is calculated from the cited references in a journal's publications: find the year such that 50% of total citations received fall within that year or more recently. Clarivate's JCR reports this; it can also be estimated from histogram analysis of reference year distributions.

Citation Half-Life Calculator

Calculate journal or discipline citation half-life — the median age of articles cited by papers published in a given year. Measures how rapidly a field's literature ages. Short half-life (~2 years) indicates fast-moving field; long half-life (>10 years) indicates foundational literature.

Data set — comma or newline separated

Statistical Results — n = 8

Count (n)8

Sum (Σx)40

Min2

Max9

Range7

Q14

Q35.5

IQR1.5

Mean (μ)5

Median4.5

Mode4

Pop. Variance (σ²)4

Pop. Std Dev (σ)2

Sample Variance (s²)4.571428571

Sample Std Dev (s)2.138089935

Skewness0.65625

Excess Kurtosis-0.21875

How to Use

Enter the values for the scenario you are assessing. Calculate journal or discipline citation half-life — the median age of articles cited by papers published in a given year. Measures how rapidly a field's literature ages. Short half-life (~2 years) indicates fast-moving field; long half-life (>10 years) indicates foundational literature. Use the citation half-life result to inform your calculation.

Citation Half-Life Calculator

How to Use

Frequently Asked Questions

Which fields have short citation half-lives?

How is citation half-life calculated?