Abstract: Based on a dual-route perspective of the emotion outcome expectation and the performance outcome expectation, this paper aims to explore the factors and cognitive process of researchers’ citation behavior by integrating social cognitive theory, elaboration likelihood model, knowledge management theory and self-efficacy theory. This paper proposes research hypothesis and theoretical model, and adopts the normative empirical research method that combines situational experiment and questionnaire interview to collect 369 effective questionnaires from 92 research teams in 8 universities of central China. SmartPLS2.0 is employed to verify the hypotheses and model. The results show that the emotion outcome expectation, the performance outcome expectation and the citation self-efficacy significantly affect researchers’ citation behavior. The citation self-efficacy positively affects the emotion outcome expectation and the performance outcome expectation; perceived literature reputation significantly affects the emotion outcome expectation; and perceived literature quality significantly affects the performance outcome expectation. Academic information literacy and team leadership support have a positive impact on citation self-efficacy.

Key words: Citation behavior, Emotion outcome expectation, Performance outcome expectation, Dualroute analysis