The bibliometric indicators based on the citations are founded on the assumption that the important papers are usually cited, while the irrelevant ones are ignored. The basic assumptions of citation analysis, the method of calculating these indicators, their advantages, drawbacks and limitations are discussed. We also outline strategies in which journal editors and researchers are supported to increase the number of citations and the most cited articles in the journal Acta Pediátrica Española. The most commonly used basic indicators are the number of citations received by a research unit (author, group, institution, country, journal or subject area), average citations per paper, number of papers cited, h-index, indicators based on the h-index and the crown indicator. Among the indicators extracted from the analysis of references we discuss the cited half-life, the Price index and the isolation index.