{
  "kind": "fact",
  "studySlug": "citation-sources",
  "slug": "docs-are-a-niche-but-important-citation-layer",
  "title": "Docs are a niche but important citation layer",
  "description": "Docs are not broad recommendation winners, but they show up when the prompt becomes technical.",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-10-14",
  "lastTested": "2026-10-14",
  "sourceStudyUrl": "/trakkr-research/citation-sources",
  "sourceStudyTitle": "AI Citation Index",
  "claimIds": [
    "citation-sources:docs-share",
    "citation-sources:total-citations"
  ],
  "relatedSlugs": [
    "answer:how-often-do-docs-get-cited-by-ai",
    "answer:why-does-wikipedia-still-get-cited-so-often",
    "tracker:top-cited-domain-tracker"
  ],
  "methodologySummary": "Built from 80,769,585 citation appearances across 725,777 unique domains in the latest valid snapshot for 1,928 tracked brands, observed from October 3, 2025 to October 14, 2026.",
  "limitations": [
    "The index is a changing panel of tracked brands and prompts, not a random sample of all AI responses.",
    "Domain share is observational. It does not establish causal influence or reveal the full retrieval set.",
    "The hand-maintained source taxonomy is partial: 88.40% of citation appearances remain in “other”.",
    "Model attribution, response-level citation denominators, geography, raw prompts, and raw responses are not retained in the public aggregate."
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "AI citations",
    "citation sources",
    "AI source preferences",
    "domain authority in AI"
  ],
  "schemaHints": {
    "pageType": "Article",
    "includeDataset": true
  },
  "claim": "Domains in the current docs map account for 0.18% of the citation index.",
  "supportingMetrics": [
    {
      "label": "Docs category share",
      "value": "0.18%",
      "detail": "Partial hand-maintained source classification."
    },
    {
      "label": "Citation appearances",
      "value": "80.8M",
      "detail": "80,769,585 appearances in the verified October 14, 2026 snapshot."
    }
  ],
  "whyItMatters": "The result should be read as a narrow domain-category count, not a census of documentation pages.",
  "citationBlock": {
    "quote": "Domains in the current docs map account for 0.18% of the citation index.",
    "attribution": "AI Citation Index - Trakkr Research",
    "url": "https://trakkr.ai/trakkr-research/citation-sources/facts/docs-are-a-niche-but-important-citation-layer"
  }
}