[Purpose/significance] This paper systematically defines the related concepts of counting methods and establishes the counting methods classification. Then, it concludes the characteristics and differences of counting methods, analyzes the existing problems and proposes some suggestions for the future improvement and selection of counting methods.[Method/process] Firstly, the paper generalized the elements and the process of counting methods, proposed two classified factors of counting methods from the perspective of credit allocation, including full counts and fractional counts, and then, we summarized the two methods. Secondly, the paper took full counts and factional counts as an example to compare the differences between two types of methods from three perspectives included publication indicators, citation indicators and network indicators.[Result/conclusion] Finally, we develop a brief description of existing problems, which include the advantages and disadvantages of full counts and fractional counts, the consistency between the basic unit and count object, the rationality of credit allocation and measurement of network impact. Besides, we point out the further research space of the above problems.
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