Scientometrics
Volume/Issue:
Volume 90: Issue 2
The relationship between co-authorship, currency of references and author self-citations
Authors:
Wen-Yau Cathy Lin Department of Information and Library Science, Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan wylin@mail.tku.edu.tw

Search for other papers by Wen-Yau Cathy Lin in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
and
Mu-Hsuan Huang Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Roosevelt Road Sec. 4, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

Search for other papers by Mu-Hsuan Huang in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
Pages:
343–360
Online Publication Date:
22 Sep 2011
Publication Date:
01 Feb 2012
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0523-6
Keywords:
Self-citation; Author self-citation; Co-authorship; Publication lag
Restricted access

Abstract

This paper attempts to identify the relationship between co-authorship and the currency of the references and author self-citations in the key journals of environmental engineering. The results show that the self-citation rate of co-authored articles is higher than in single-authored articles. A statistically significant correlation is identified between the numbers of co-authors, the rate of author self-citing and the author self-cited; though it was a low correlation. The value of coefficient correlation between the number of co-authors and the author self-citing rate is slightly higher than that between the number of co-authors and the author self-cited rate, which indicates that the number of co-authors hold a stronger correlation with the self-citing rate than the self-cited rate. Meanwhile, self-citing references are found to be more up-to-date than references to others. The range of publication years of self-citing references is smaller than that of references to others, indicating that researchers tend to preferentially cite their own recent works. There is no significant difference in the latest references between self-citing references and the references to others. It might result from electronic journals that provide an easy access to the most current publications.

  • Aksnes, DW 2003 A macro study of self citation. Scientometrics 56 2 235–246 .

  • Al-Qallaf, CL 2003 Citation patterns in the Kuwaiti Journal Medical Principles and Practice: The first 12 years, 1989–2000. Scientometrics 56 3 369–382 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Anonymous 2003 Citing self. Science 300 5616 47.

  • Avkiran, NK 1997 Scientific collaboration in finance does not lead to better quality research. Scientometrics 39 2 173–184 .

  • Barrios, M, Borrego, A, Vilaginés, A, Ollé, C, Somoza, M 2008 A bibliometric study of psychological research on tourism. Scientometrics 77 3 453–467 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bonzi, S, Snyder, HW 1990 Patterns of self citation across fields of Inquiry. The 53 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science Learned Information Medford, NJ 204–207.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bonzi, S, Snyder, HW 1991 Motivations of citation: a comparison of self citation and citation to others. Scientometrics 21 2 245–254 .

  • Gami, AS, Montori, VM, Wilczynski, NL, Haynes, RB 2004 Author self-citation in the diabetes literature. Canadian Medical Association Journal 170 13 1925–1927 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Garfield, E 1979 Citation Indexing: Its theory and application in science, technology, and humanities ISI Press Philadelphia.

  • Glänzel, W., (2008). Seven myths in bibliometrics. About facts and fiction in quantitative science studies. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics & Ninth COLLNET Meeting. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www.collnet.de/Berlin-2008/GlanzelWIS2008smb.pdf.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Glänzel, W, Thijs, B 2004 Does co-authorship inflate the share of self-citations?. Scientometrics 61 3 395–404 .

  • Glänzel, W, Thijs, B, Schlemmer, B 2004 A bibliometric approach to the role of author self-citations in scientific communication. Scientometrics 59 1 63–77 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hellsten, I, Lambiotte, R, Scharnhorst, A, Ausloos, M 2007 Self-citations, co-authorships and keywords: A new approach to scientists’ field mobility?. Scientometrics 72 3 469–486 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Herbertz, H 1995 Does it pay to cooperate? A bibliometric case study in molecular biology. Scientometrics 33 1 117–122 .

  • Hyland, K 2003 Self-citation and self-reference: credibility and promotion in academic publication. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 54 3 251–259 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Katz, J, Hicks, D 1997 How much is a collaboration worth? A calibrated bibliometric model. Scientometrics 40 3 541–554 .

  • Lawani, S. M. (1980). Quality, collaboration and citations in cancer research: a bibliometric study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Michigan University, Ann Arbor, MI.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Leimu, R, Koricheva, J 2005 Does scientific collaboration increase the impact of ecological articles?. BioScience 55 5 438–443 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Moed, HF 2005 Citation analysis in research evaluation 9 Springer Netherlands.

  • Mukherjee, B 2009 Do open-access journals in library and information science have any scholarly impact? A bibliometric study of selected open-access journals using Google Scholar. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60 3 581–594 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Narin, F, Olivastro, D 1986 National trends in physics and technology. Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 36 1 101–106 .

  • Pendlebury, D 2009 The use and misuse of journal metrics and other citation indicators. Archivum Immunologiae et therapiae Experimentalis 57 1 1–11 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Persson, O, Glänzel, W, Danell, R 2004 Inflationary bibliometric values: The role of scientific collaboration and the need for relative indicators in evaluative studies. Scientometrics 60 3 421–432 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Phelan, TJ 1999 A compendium of issues for citation analysis. Scientometrics 45 1 117–136 .

  • Pichappan, P, Sarasvady, S 2002 The other side of the coin: the intricacies of author self citations. Scientometrics 54 2 285–290 .

  • Rousseau, R 2001 Are multi-authored articles cited more than single-authored ones? Are collaborations with authors from other countries more cited than collaborations within the country? A case study F Havemann R Wagner-Döbler H Kretschmer eds. Proceedings of the second Berlin workshop on scientometrics and informetrics Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsforschung Berlin 173–176.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Schubert, A, Glänzel, W, Thijs, B 2006 The weight of author self-citations. A fractional approach to self-citation counting. Scientometrics 67 3 503–514.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Smart, JC, Bayer, AE 1986 Author collaboration and impact: A note on citation rates of single and multiple authored articles. Scientometrics 10 5–6 297–305 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Snyder, HW, Bonzi, S 1998 Patterns of self-citation across disciplines (1980–1989). Journal of Information Science 24 6 431–435 .

  • Tagliacozzo, R 1977 Self-citations in scientific literature. Journal of Documentation 33 4 251–265 .

  • University of Houston—Cullen College of Engineering. (2006). In Memoriam: Frank M. Tiller (1917-2006). Retrieved March 26, 2009, from http://www.egr.uh.edu/parameters/spring2006/?e=tiller.

  • AFJ van Raan 1998 The influence of international collaboration on the impact of research results—some simple mathematical considerations concerning the role of self-citations. Scientometrics 42 3 423–428 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • White, HD 2001 Authors as citers over time. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 52 2 87–108 .

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Collapse
  • Expand
Cover Scientometrics
Scientometrics
Print ISSN:
0138-9130
Online ISSN:
1588-2861

To see the editorial board, please visit the website of Springer Nature.

Manuscript submission: http://www.editorialmanager.com/scim/

For subscription options, please visit the website of Springer Nature.

Scientometrics
Language English
Size B5
Year of
Foundation		 1978
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 12
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 0138-9130 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2861 (Online)

Monthly Content Usage

Abstract Views Full Text Views PDF Downloads
Dec 2024 43 0 0
Jan 2025 62 0 0
Feb 2025 43 1 1
Mar 2025 24 0 0
Apr 2025 20 0 0
May 2025 8 0 0
Jun 2025 0 0 0