| Impact much smaller than expected (percentage of citations is smaller with more than 75% of the percentage of articles) |
| Minimal impact |
| The impact is smaller than expected (percentage of citations smaller with 50% - 75% of the article percentage) |
| Very low impact |
| Small impact (−25% - 50%) |
| Low impact |
| Stationary/Neutral (−25% - +25%) |
| Neutral |
| Increased impact (between +25 and +50%) |
| Increased impact |
| Large impact (between +50 and +75%) |
| Large impact |
| Very large impact (percentage of citations is bigger with more than 75% than the percentage of retracted articles) |
| Very large impact |