Self-citation and self-reference: credibility and promotion in academic publication
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
On the robustness of the h-index: Brief Communication
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
This study investigates the incidence of self-citation (authors citing their own work) for scholarly articles in ten journals published by the American Physiological Society. We analysed authorship and referencing practices of all original research articles published in the first ordinary issue of each journal in both 2000 and 2010, comprising 271 and 212 articles, respectively. Self-citation is common in these journals and represents a total of 17.75% of all citations. Only 9 (1.86%) of the articles analysed did not self-cite. Author position significantly influenced the rate of self-citation with last authors being self-cited significantly more than any other author. This was likely a result of the cumulative nature of scientific research within a specific discipline and the necessary desire to promote ones own work for associated academic benefit. The country in which the work was conducted also influenced the rate of self-citation, with last authors based in North America self-citing more than last authors from Asian countries. A comparison of self-citation rates between decades (2000 and 2010) revealed an increase in the number of authors and number of citations per article between 2000 and 2010, however the mean percentage of self-cited articles did not differ between the years. Finally, there were no differences in the percentage of self-citation between the different journals analysed.