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This is a tough question to answer, as there are many variables. In general, older documents have had more time to accrue citations, and different disciplines will be cited more or less often and in differing patterns. 

There are some citation metrics available that are 'field weighted' or 'field normalised' and they aim to give you a better understanding of the impact of your research output beyond a raw citation count. These include the Field Weighted Citation Impact, where the publication is compared to others in the same year bracket, the same type and in the same journal classification. A value of 1.00 means the document has been cited as expected, and a value of 2.00 means it has been cited twice as many times as expected.

You can access these and other metrics via several sources, and it is recommended you use the Scopus database.

Different databases may give a different citation counts for the same entity and this is due to differences in indexing. In general, Scholar indexes everything regardless of quality, whereas Scopus and Web of Science are both curated indexes of research publications, with Scopus indexing slightly more content overall. Publish or Perish has the ability to aggregate all sources of citation data.

For further help please contact Joanne Fitzpatrick, Research Data Manager: j.fitzpatrick2@lancaster.ac.uk