IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v120y2019i2d10.1007_s11192-019-03139-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of country self-citations on bibliometric indicators and ranking of most productive countries

Author

Listed:
  • Ibrahim Shehatta

    (Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University)

  • Abdullah M. Al-Rubaish

    (Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University)

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to determine the share of country self-citations and to analyze its impact on total citations, average citation per paper, % cited publications and ranking of top ten most research productive countries over the period 1996–2015 using Scopus database. It was found that the mean and median of the country self-citation rates of these countries were 28.0 ± 3.8% and 22.9 ± 12.1% respectively and ranged from 17.8% (Canada) to 54.9% (China) over the studied period. United States (45.6%) ranked second country with % self-citation after China (54.9%). Country self-citations and/or its percentage were highly and positively correlated with total publications, total citations, cited publications and international collaboration. On the other hand, a strong negative correlation was observed between country self-citations with both average net-citation per paper and per capita publication. Also, significant impact of self-citation on total citations, average citation per paper and % cited publications was observed. China in total citations and United States in average citation per paper and % cited publications, were the most affected nations in rankings among all the studied nations. Among top 10 countries, China contains the highest share of self-citations in both average citation per paper (55.1%) and % cited publications (37.9%). Thus, self-citation has a strong impact on the top country’s scholarly performance. Some implications/recommendations were suggested to deal with country self-citation phenomenon. Shortly, excluding self-citation from calculating various citation-based bibliometric indicators will not remove the entire effect, but at least, it will produce a more reliable and real impact of each publication.

Suggested Citation

  • Ibrahim Shehatta & Abdullah M. Al-Rubaish, 2019. "Impact of country self-citations on bibliometric indicators and ranking of most productive countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 775-791, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:120:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-019-03139-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-019-03139-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-019-03139-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-019-03139-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emilio Ferrara & Alfonso E. Romero, 2013. "Scientific impact evaluation and the effect of self-citations: Mitigating the bias by discounting the h-index," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(11), pages 2332-2339, November.
    2. Yves Gingras & Mahdi Khelfaoui, 2018. "Assessing the effect of the United States’ “citation advantage” on other countries’ scientific impact as measured in the Web of Science (WoS) database," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 517-532, February.
    3. Zhi Li & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2008. "Use of citation per publication as an indicator to evaluate contingent valuation research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(1), pages 97-110, April.
    4. Rodrigo Costas & Thed N. Leeuwen & María Bordons, 2010. "Self-citations at the meso and individual levels: effects of different calculation methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 82(3), pages 517-537, March.
    5. James H. Fowler & Dag W. Aksnes, 2007. "Does self-citation pay?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(3), pages 427-437, September.
    6. Olle Persson & Wolfgang Glänzel & Rickard Danell, 2004. "Inflationary bibliometric values: The role of scientific collaboration and the need for relative indicators in evaluative studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(3), pages 421-432, August.
    7. Bart Thijs & Wolfgang Glänzel, 2006. "The influence of author self-citations on bibliometric meso-indicators. The case of european universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 66(1), pages 71-80, January.
    8. Wolfgang Glänzel & Bart Thijs, 2004. "Does co-authorship inflate the share of self-citations?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 61(3), pages 395-404, November.
    9. Emilio Ferrara & Alfonso E. Romero, 2013. "Scientific impact evaluation and the effect of self‐citations: Mitigating the bias by discounting the h‐index," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(11), pages 2332-2339, November.
    10. Dag W. Aksnes, 2003. "A macro study of self-citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(2), pages 235-246, February.
    11. Wolfgang Glänzel & Koenraad Debackere & Bart Thijs & András Schubert, 2006. "A concise review on the role of author self-citations in information science, bibliometrics and science policy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 67(2), pages 263-277, May.
    12. Ken Hyland, 2003. "Self‐citation and self‐reference: Credibility and promotion in academic publication," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 54(3), pages 251-259, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mahdi Khelfaoui & Julien Larrègue & Vincent Larivière & Yves Gingras, 2020. "Measuring national self-referencing patterns of major science producers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 979-996, May.
    2. Martin Szomszor & David A. Pendlebury & Jonathan Adams, 2020. "How much is too much? The difference between research influence and self-citation excess," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 1119-1147, May.
    3. Abad-Segura, Emilio & González-Zamar, Mariana Daniela & López-Meneses, Eloy, 2022. "El proceso de toma de decisiones basado en métodos cuantitativos [Analysis of research on decision making-based on quantitative methods]," Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa = Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, vol. 34(1), pages 118-136, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Szomszor & David A. Pendlebury & Jonathan Adams, 2020. "How much is too much? The difference between research influence and self-citation excess," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 1119-1147, May.
    2. Tehmina Amjad & Yusra Rehmat & Ali Daud & Rabeeh Ayaz Abbasi, 2020. "Scientific impact of an author and role of self-citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 915-932, February.
    3. Rodrigo Costas & Thed N. Leeuwen & María Bordons, 2010. "Self-citations at the meso and individual levels: effects of different calculation methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 82(3), pages 517-537, March.
    4. Mansour Haghighat & Javad Hayatdavoudi, 2021. "How hot are hot papers? The issue of prolificacy and self-citation stacking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 565-578, January.
    5. Mathieu Leblond, 2012. "Author self-citations in the field of ecology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 943-953, June.
    6. Hui Li & Weishu Liu, 2020. "Same same but different: self-citations identified through Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2723-2732, September.
    7. Abramo, Giovanni & D'Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea & Grilli, Leonardo, 2021. "The effects of citation-based research evaluation schemes on self-citation behavior," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    8. Shubhanshu Mishra & Brent D Fegley & Jana Diesner & Vetle I Torvik, 2018. "Self-citation is the hallmark of productive authors, of any gender," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, September.
    9. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    10. Copiello, Sergio, 2019. "Peer and neighborhood effects: Citation analysis using a spatial autoregressive model and pseudo-spatial data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 238-254.
    11. Michelle L. Dion & Sara McLaughlin Mitchell & Jane L. Sumner, 2020. "Gender, seniority, and self-citation practices in political science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 1-28, October.
    12. Victoria Bakare & Grant Lewison, 2017. "Country over-citation ratios," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(2), pages 1199-1207, November.
    13. Anthony F. J. Raan, 2012. "Properties of journal impact in relation to bibliometric research group performance indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(2), pages 457-469, August.
    14. Silvio Peroni & Paolo Ciancarini & Aldo Gangemi & Andrea Giovanni Nuzzolese & Francesco Poggi & Valentina Presutti, 2020. "The practice of self-citations: a longitudinal study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(1), pages 253-282, April.
    15. Lina Zhou & Uchechukwuka Amadi & Dongsong Zhang, 2020. "Is Self-Citation Biased? An Investigation via the Lens of Citation Polarity, Density, and Location," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 77-90, February.
    16. Rabishankar Giri & Sabuj Kumar Chaudhuri, 2021. "Ranking journals through the lens of active visibility," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2189-2208, March.
    17. James Hartley, 2012. "To cite or not to cite: author self-citations and the impact factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(2), pages 313-317, August.
    18. Wen-Yau Cathy Lin & Mu-Hsuan Huang, 2012. "The relationship between co-authorship, currency of references and author self-citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 343-360, February.
    19. Zaggl, Michael A., 2017. "Manipulation of explicit reputation in innovation and knowledge exchange communities: The example of referencing in science," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 970-983.
    20. Gordana Budimir & Sophia Rahimeh & Sameh Tamimi & Primož Južnič, 2021. "Comparison of self-citation patterns in WoS and Scopus databases based on national scientific production in Slovenia (1996–2020)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2249-2267, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:120:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-019-03139-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.