TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-Citation patterns of journals indexed in the journal citation reports
AU - Taşkın, Zehra
AU - Doğan, Güleda
AU - Kulczycki, Emanuel
AU - Zuccala, Alesia Ann
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Self-citation patterns of 1,104 journals indexed in the 2018 edition of the Journal Citation Reports were examined to assess the possibility of underlying rank manipulations. The journals included in this study were all found to have a self-citation rate of more than 25%. Our research shows that by excluding self-citation rates, the rank of journals with a high impact factor are not affected; however, for other journals, the removal of even a single self-citation can cause significant rank changes. Self-citation patterns are typical for local language journals as well as journals from upper-middle-income European countries. Impact factors used in research performance evaluations should be used more carefully, particularly when variables such as journal size, publication language, publisher country, and subject area correlate with self-citation rates.
AB - Self-citation patterns of 1,104 journals indexed in the 2018 edition of the Journal Citation Reports were examined to assess the possibility of underlying rank manipulations. The journals included in this study were all found to have a self-citation rate of more than 25%. Our research shows that by excluding self-citation rates, the rank of journals with a high impact factor are not affected; however, for other journals, the removal of even a single self-citation can cause significant rank changes. Self-citation patterns are typical for local language journals as well as journals from upper-middle-income European countries. Impact factors used in research performance evaluations should be used more carefully, particularly when variables such as journal size, publication language, publisher country, and subject area correlate with self-citation rates.
KW - impact factor manipulation
KW - journal impact factor
KW - Journal self-citation
KW - self-citation patterns of journals
U2 - 10.1016/j.joi.2021.101221
DO - 10.1016/j.joi.2021.101221
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85118344399
VL - 15
JO - Journal of Informetrics
JF - Journal of Informetrics
SN - 1751-1577
IS - 4
M1 - 101221
ER -