One of the most basic citation metrics is how often an article was cited in other articles, books, or other sources. Citation rates are heavily dependent on the discipline and the number of people working in that area. For instance, many more scientists work in neuroscience than in mathematics, and neuroscientists publish more papers than mathematicians, hence neuroscience papers are much more often cited than papers in mathematics.
Similarly, review papers are more often cited than regular research papers because they summarize results from many papers. This may also be the reason why papers with shorter titles get more citations, given that they are usually covering a broader area.
While citation metrics are a convenient method of quantifying dissemination and have been used extensively in the neurosurgical literature to identify landmark publications, 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) it is important to note that citation rate likely only represents a fraction of dissemination and readership. Indeed, there are many ways that a publication can be disseminated that do not involve citations, such as number of downloads, conference presentation, social media “hits,” etc. Furthermore, just because someone cites one's work does not mean that it has had clinical impact depending on where and in what context the guideline is cited.