a large number of theoretical and empirical studies on citation behavior have been conducted internationally. although some theoretical studies on such topic have been carried out in china, few studies have focused specifically on this area from an empirical perspective, resulting in the lack of literature on the findings of actual surveys. to address this challenge, we conducted two questionnaire surveys to understand the motivations of the researchers on citation. one survey covers the authors who published articles in chinese journal of scientific and technical periodicals, while the other targets the most productive and most cited chinese authors in library and information science. the results show that citation behavior is not only motivated by rational factors, but also by other social factors.