Citation graph

A citation graph (or citation network), in information science and bibliometrics, is a directed graph that describes the citations within a collection of documents.

Each vertex (or node) in the graph represents a document in the collection, and each edge is directed from one document toward another that it cites (or vice versa depending on the specific implementation).

Citation graphs have been utilised in various ways, including forms of citation analysis, academic search tools and court judgements. They are predicted to become more relevant and useful in the future as the body of published research grows.