Issue Report: Incorrect Citation Type & Citation Count Mismatch on OpenAlex

[Sabari Nathan]

Hi OpenAlex Community,

I have identified two issues with the following article in OpenAlex and would appreciate your support in resolving them:

🔗 https://openalex.org/works/w3161181223

I have attached a screenshot for reference.

1. Incorrect Citation Type – The article is currently categorized as a Preprint; however, it should be classified as a Journal Article.

2. Citation Count Discrepancy – The citation count on OpenAlex appears significantly lower than what is reported across other academic databases:
   • Google Scholar: 27
   • Scopus: 23
   • CrossRef: 23
   • Web of Science: 20
   • OpenAlex: 2

Could anyone please help clarify why these discrepancies exist and whether a correction can be made?

Thank you!

[Jay Pfaffman]

It hasn't been updated since December, oh, but the article is from 2021, so that's not a very good explanation. 

• updated_date: "2025-11-06T03:46:38.306776",
• created_date: "2025-10-10T00:00:00"

For https://www.refrunner.com/, the reference validator app that I'm working on, I search on OpenAlex, but refer to Crossref for the data used to format references. Since OpenAlex gets its data from Crossref, it's necessarily going to be behind it. 

Jay Pfaffman <j...@literatecomputing.com>

http://www.literatecomputing.com/

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[Sabari Nathan]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for looking into this and for the explanation about the data lag relative to CrossRef.

That helps explain the count discrepancy somewhat, though the difference between 23 (CrossRef) and 2 (OpenAlex) is still quite large.

Did you happen to see anything regarding the citation type for that article being listed as a Preprint instead of a Journal Article?

Thanks,

Sabari

[Jay Pfaffman]

I don't know, but you asked, so I'll make up an answer. :) 

When the record was created, it was a preprint. It points to the preprint pdf. 

I can't explain what changed in December and why it didn't get the updated crossref data then. I don't know where they are getting citation data.

And I don't know how the update trail works. 

If you're interested, here's how my app displays it:  https://www.refrunner.com/works/W3161181223 

Jay Pfaffman <j...@literatecomputing.com>

http://www.literatecomputing.com/