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The influence of references per paper in the SCI to Impact Factors and the Matthew Effect

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  • Mohammad Hossein Biglu

    (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

Abstract

All references data was extracted from the annual volumes of the CD-Edition of Science Citation Index (SCI) and the Web of Science of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), the journal citation and self-citation data extracted from the Journal Citation Report (JCR), the self-citing rate and self-cited rate calculated based on the JCR method. To determine the trend of mean value of references per paper throughout 1970–2005, a total number of 10,000 records were randomly chosen for each year of under study, and the mean value of references per paper was calculated. To determine the growth of journals IF a total number of 5,499 journals were chosen in the JCR in 2002 and the same set of journals in the year 2004. To show the trend of journals IF, all journals indexed in the JCR throughout 1999–2005 were extracted and the mean values of their IFs was calculated annually. The study showed that the number of references per paper from 1970 to 2005 has steady increased. It reached from 8.40 in 1970 to 34.63 in 2005, an increase of more than 4 times. The majority of publications (76.17%) were in the form of Journals Article. After articles, Meeting Abstracts (9.46%), Notes (3.90%) and Editorial Material (3.78%) are the most frequented publication forms, respectively. 94.57% of all publications were in English. After English, German (1.50%), Russian (1.48%) and French (1.37%) were the most frequented languages, respectively. The study furthermore showed that there is a significant correlation between the IF and total citation of journals in the JCR, and there is an important hidden correlation between IF and the self-citation of journals. This phenomena causes the elevation of journals IF. The more often a journal is citing other journals, the more often it is also cited (by a factor of 1.5) by others. In consequence the growing percentage of journal self-citation is followed by journal self-citedness, which can be considered as the Matthew Effect. There is a linear correlation between journal self-citing and journal self-cited value, the mean value of self-cited rate always stays higher than the self-citing rate. The mean value of self-cited rate in 2000 was 14% and the mean value of self-citing rate is 6.61%, whereas the mean value of self-cited rate in 2005 was 12% and the mean value of self-citing rate was 7.81%.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Hossein Biglu, 2008. "The influence of references per paper in the SCI to Impact Factors and the Matthew Effect," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 74(3), pages 453-470, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:74:y:2008:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-007-1815-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1815-8
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Zitt, Michel, 2010. "Citing-side normalization of journal impact: A robust variant of the Audience Factor," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 392-406.
    2. Rodrigo Costas & Thed N. Leeuwen & María Bordons, 2012. "Referencing patterns of individual researchers: Do top scientists rely on more extensive information sources?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(12), pages 2433-2450, December.
    3. Xiang Liu & Feicheng Ma, 2013. "Transfer and distribution of knowledge creation activities of bio-scientists in knowledge space," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(1), pages 299-310, April.
    4. Stefan N. Groesser, 2012. "Dynamics of Journal Impact Factors," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 624-644, November.
    5. Marek Kosmulski, 2020. "Nobel laureates are not hot," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(1), pages 487-495, April.
    6. Yuandi Wang & Xin Pan & Xinyu Wang & Jin Chen & Lutao Ning & Ying Qin, 2014. "Visualizing knowledge space: a case study of Chinese licensed technology, 2000–2012," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 1935-1954, March.
    7. Tahamtan, Iman & Bornmann, Lutz, 2018. "Creativity in science and the link to cited references: Is the creative potential of papers reflected in their cited references?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 906-930.
    8. Elea Giménez-Toledo & Jorge Mañana-Rodríguez & Tim C. E. Engels & Peter Ingwersen & Janne Pölönen & Gunnar Sivertsen & Frederik T. Verleysen & Alesia A. Zuccala, 2016. "Taking scholarly books into account: current developments in five European countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(2), pages 685-699, May.
    9. Can Dai & Quan Chen & Tao Wan & Fan Liu & Yanbing Gong & Qingfeng Wang, 2021. "Literary runaway: Increasingly more references cited per academic research article from 1980 to 2019," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(8), pages 1-13, August.
    10. Liu, Yunmei & Yang, Liu & Chen, Min, 2021. "A new citation concept: Triangular citation in the literature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    11. Xue Yang & Xin Gu & Yuandi Wang & Guangyuan Hu & Li Tang, 2015. "The Matthew effect in China’s science: evidence from academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(3), pages 2089-2105, March.
    12. Lafond, Francois, 2012. "Learning and the structure of citation networks," MERIT Working Papers 2012-071, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    13. Li, Menghui & Yang, Liying & Zhang, Huina & Shen, Zhesi & Wu, Chensheng & Wu, Jinshan, 2017. "Do mathematicians, economists and biomedical scientists trace large topics more strongly than physicists?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 598-607.

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