When are network-based citation indicators superior to MNCS/MNLCS?

Identify the fields and publication years in which network-based citation indicators (e.g., PageRank-like measures) provide more accurate indications of scholarly impact or research quality than field- and year-normalized indicators such as MNCS or MNLCS.

Background

Network-based indicators weight citations by the influence of the citing sources and may better capture certain forms of impact, but they can also overweight trivial citations and are less transparent.

Determining the conditions under which these methods outperform established normalized indicators would inform their responsible adoption.