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The weight of author self-citations. A fractional approach to self-citation counting

Author

Listed:
  • András Schubert

    (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

  • Wolfgang Glänzel

    (Hungarian Academy of Sciences
    Steunpunt O&O Statistieken)

  • Bart Thijs

    (Steunpunt O&O Statistieken)

Abstract

The discussion about how to treat author self-citations driven by policy application and quality measurement intensified in the last years. The definition introduced by Snyder and Bonzi has — in lack of any reasonable alternative — been used in bibliometric practice for science policy purposes. This method, however, does not take into account the weight of self-citing authors among coauthors of both the cited and citing papers. The objective of the present paper is to quantify the weight of self-citations with respect to co-authorship. The analysis is conducted at two levels: at the macro level, namely, for fifteen subject fields and the most active forty countries, and at the meso level, for a set of selected research institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • András Schubert & Wolfgang Glänzel & Bart Thijs, 2006. "The weight of author self-citations. A fractional approach to self-citation counting," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 67(3), pages 503-514, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:67:y:2006:i:3:d:10.1556_scient.67.2006.3.11
    DOI: 10.1556/Scient.67.2006.3.11
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert, 2003. "A new classification scheme of science fields and subfields designed for scientometric evaluation purposes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(3), pages 357-367, March.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anton J. Nederhof & Thed N. Leeuwen & Anthony F. J. Raan, 2010. "Highly cited non-journal publications in political science, economics and psychology: a first exploration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(2), pages 363-374, May.
    2. 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.
    3. Stephen Carley & Alan L. Porter & Jan Youtie, 2013. "Toward a more precise definition of self-citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 777-780, February.
    4. Candan Gokceoglu & Aral I. Okay & Ebru Sezer, 2008. "International earth science literature from Turkey — 1970–2005: Trends and possible causes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 74(3), pages 409-423, March.
    5. Jan Youtie, 2014. "The use of citation speed to understand the effects of a multi-institutional science center," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 100(3), pages 613-621, September.
    6. Liwei Cai & Jiahao Tian & Jiaying Liu & Xiaomei Bai & Ivan Lee & Xiangjie Kong & Feng Xia, 2019. "Scholarly impact assessment: a survey of citation weighting solutions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(2), pages 453-478, February.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.

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