The SNIP (source normalized impact per paper) indicator is an indicator of
the citation impact of scientific journals. The indicator, introduced by Henk
Moed in 2010, is included in Elsevier's Scopus database. The SNIP indicator
uses a source normalized approach to correct for differences in citation
practices between scientific fields. The strength of this approach is that it
does not require a field classification system in which the boundaries of
fields are explicitly defined. In this paper, a number of modifications that
will be made to the SNIP indicator are explained, and the advantages of the
resulting revised SNIP indicator are pointed out. It is argued that the
original SNIP indicator has some counterintuitive properties, and it is shown
mathematically that the revised SNIP indicator does not have these properties.
Empirically, the differences between the original SNIP indicator and the
revised one turn out to be relatively small, although some systematic
differences can be observed. Relations with other source normalized indicators
proposed in the literature are discussed as well