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Editorial

Nature Geoscience 1, 563 (1 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo305

The importance of being cited

As the pursuit of science has evolved from a pastime of the genteel upper classes to a full-blown industry, citations have become an obsession. Researchers worry about their places in the web of references — whom they should cite and who should cite them; research councils and university departments distribute money according to citation records; and editors anxiously anticipate the annual announcement of their journal's impact factor.