JDIS

Journal of Data and Information Science >

0 1 - 1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2025-0007

Research Notes

The physics of journal self-citation

Expand
  • 1Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Nevada, Nevada 89557-0312, USA;
    2State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Peking University, Beijing, China;
    3Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Vavrečkova 5669, 760 01 Zlín, Czech Republic;
    4Chemical Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139, USA;
    5State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power, Mechatronic Systems and Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
† Alan J. Giacomin (Email: giacomin@unr.edu).

Received date: 2025-02-07

  Revised date: 2025-04-15

  Accepted date: 2025-05-12

  Online published: 2025-06-25

Fold

Abstract

Purpose: This study explores the implications of low journal self-citation rate (LJSCR). While some interpret LJSCR as a sign that a journal's authors do not cite each other's work, others see it as a mark of prestige, reflecting greater recognition from outside the journal. We argue that these perspectives are not contradictory: low self-citation can be prestigious precisely because it reflects low self-readership.
Design/methodology/approach: We analyze the physics and mathematics of journal self-citation. Our findings show that the self-citation rate (i) increases with journal market share, (ii) approaches a well-defined upper bound, (iii) this upper bound remains significantly below unity, and (iv) without a minimum level of market share, self-citation is virtually absent. Here, market share refers to the proportion of a journal's publications relative to its Web of Science (WOS) subject category. To test our analysis, we examine 61 journal-years of data from three major hybrid fluid dynamics journals: Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Physical Review Fluids, and Physics of Fluids.
Findings: We identify a consistent relationship between journal self-citation and market share. A striking result is the mathematical analogy we establish between journal self-citation behavior and the concentration of intermediates in consecutive irreversible unimolecular chemical reactions. We also observe that creating specialized subdisciplinary journals (“twigging”) can reduce self-citation rates by narrowing scope.
Research limitations: The study is limited to fluid dynamics journals. Broader validation across disciplines is needed.
Practical implications: Editors and publishers can apply these insights to interpret citation metrics and assess the visibility and readership of their journals.
Originality/value: This work redefines LJSCR as a counterintuitive metric—one that may reflect both low author engagement and high external impact. It introduces a novel physics-based model to understand citation behavior across journals.

Key words： Journal self-citation; Impact factor; Journal market share; Journal self-cited rate; Journal self-citing rate; Physics of self-citation

Cite this article

Alan J. Giacomin, Martin Zatloukal, Mona A. Kanso, Nhan Phan-Thien . The physics of journal self-citation[J]. Journal of Data and Information Science, 0 : 1 -1 . DOI: 10.2478/jdis-2025-0007

References

[1] Abramo G.,D'Angelo, C. A., & Grilli, L.(2021). The effects of citation-based research evaluation schemes on self-citation behavior. Journal of Informetrics, 15(4), 101204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2021.101204
[2] Aksnes, D. W. (2003). A macro study of self-citation.Scientometrics, 56(2), 235-246.
[3] Bhandari M., Busse J., Devereaux P. J., Montori V. M., Swiontkowski M., Tornetta P., III, Einhorn T. A., Khera V., & Schemitsch E. H. (2007). Factors associated with citation rates in the orthopedic literature.Canadian Journal of Surgery, 50(2), 119.
[4] Boyce, W. E., & DiPrima, R. C. (2009). Elementary differential equations and boundary value problems (9th ed.). Wiley.
[5] Carberry, J. J. (1976). Chemical and catalytic reaction engineering. McGraw-Hill.
[6] Chan Man Fong, C. F., De Kee D., & Kaloni P. N. (2003). Advanced mathematics for engineering and science. World Scientific.
[7] Chaudhry R.,& Varacallo, M. A. (2025). Biochemistry, glycolysis. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing. PMID: 29493928
[8] Clarivate. (2024a). Web of Science. https://www.webofscience.com
[9] Clarivate. (2024b). Journal Citation Reports. https://jcr.clarivate.com
[10] Davarpanah, M. R., & Amel, F. (2009). Author self-citation pattern in science.Library Review, 58(4), 301-309.
[11] Egghe, L., & Rousseau, R. (1990). Introduction to informetrics: Quantitative methods in library, documentation and information science. Elsevier Science Publishers.
[12] Engqvist, L., & Frommen, J. G. (2008). The h-index and self-citations.Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 23(5), 250-252.
[13] Fassoulaki A., Paraskeva A., Papilas K., & Karabinis G. (2000). Self-citations in six anaesthesia journals and their significance in determining the impact factor.British Journal of Anaesthesia, 84(2), 266-269.
[14] Fernie A. R., Roscher A., Ratcliffe R. G., & Kruger N. J. (2001). Fructose 2,6-bisphosphate activates pyrophosphate: fructose-6-phosphate 1-phosphotransferase and increases triose phosphate to hexose phosphate cycling in heterotrophic cells.Planta, 212, 250-263.
[15] Fogler, H. S. (2006). Elements of chemical reaction engineering (4th ed.). Prentice-Hall.
[16] Fowler, J., & Aksnes, D. (2007). Does self-citation pay?.Scientometrics, 72(3), 427-437.
[17] Frandsen, T. F. (2007). Journal self-citations—Analysing the JIF mechanism.Journal of Informetrics, 1(1), 47-58.
[18] Frandsen, T. F., & Rousseau, R. (2005). Article impact calculated over arbitrary periods.Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(1), 58-62.
[19] Garfield, E. (1976). A bibliometric analysis of references processed for the 1974 Science Citation Index.Journal Citation Reports, 8(35), 7-20.
[20] Gazni A.,& Didegah, F. (2021). Journal self-citation trends in 1975-2017 and the effect on journal impact and article citations. Learned Publishing, 34(2), 233-240.
[21] Ghane, M. R. (2010). Self-citation in PJCR's engineering journals and their significance in determining impact factor during 2002-2006.International Journal of Information Science and Management, 8(1), 21-37.
[22] Giacomin, A. J. (2007). Publish or perish postscripts.Physics Today, 58, 12-13.
[23] Giacomin A. J., Zatloukal M., Kanso M. A., & Phan-Thien N. (2025). The physics of citation growth.Journal of Data and Information Science, 10(1), 1-19.
[24] Halevi G., Sánchez Jiménez R., Guerrero Bote V. P., & De-Moya Anegón F. (2024). Estimating the financial value of scientific journals and APCs using visibility factors: A new methodological approach.Profesional de la Información, 33(5), e330512.
[25] Hendrix, D. (2009). Institutional self-citation rates: A three year study of universities in the United States.Scientometrics, 81(2), 321-331.
[26] Heneberg, P. (2016). From excessive journal self-cites to citation stacking: Analysis of journal self-citation kinetics in search for journals, which boost their scientometric indicators. PLoS One, 11(4), e0153730. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153730
[27] Huang, M.-H., & Lin, W.-Y. C. (2012). The influence of journal self-citations on journal impact factor and immediacy index.Online Information Review, 36(5), 639-654.
[28] Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2015). A generalized view of self-citation: Direct, co-author, collaborative, and coercive induced self-citation.Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 78(1), 7-11.
[29] Jain J., Walia N., Singh S., & Jain E. (2021). Mapping the field of behavioural biases: A literature review using bibliometric analysis.Management Review Quarterly, 72, 823-855.
[30] Kells, L. M. (1954). Elementary differential equations (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
[31] King M. M., Bergstrom C. T., Correll S. J., Jacquet J., & West J. D. (2017). Men set their own cites high: Gender and self-citation across fields and over time. Socius, 3, 2378023117738903. https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023117738903
[32] Krauss, J. (2007). Journal self-citation rates in ecological sciences.Scientometrics, 73(1), 79-89.
[33] Kreyszig, E. (1968). Advanced engineering mathematics (2nd ed.). Wiley.
[34] Kulkarni A. V., Aziz B., Shams I., & Busse J. W. (2011). Author self-citation in the general medicine literature. PLoS One, 6(6), e20885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0020885
[35] Kurmis, T. P., & Kurmis, A. P. (2010). Self-citation rates among medical imaging journals and a possible association with impact factor.Radiography, 16(1), 21-25.
[36] Levenspiel, O. (1972). Chemical reaction engineering (2nd ed.). Wiley.
[37] Li C. Y., Wang Y., & Giacomin A. J. (2024). Chinese Academy of Sciences Journal Ranking System (2015-2023). Physics of Fluids, 35(6), Part 1 of 4, 060401, 1-8. Errata: both occurrences of "Chinese Academy of Science" should be "Chinese Academy of Sciences".
[38] Liao Y., Zhang J. D., Yang L. Y., & Shen Z. S. (2025). The initiative of refining the CAS journal subject classification system. Journal of Data and Information Science, 10(1), 4-6. https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2025-0015
[39] Livas, C., & Delli, K. (2018). Journal self-citation rates and impact factors in dentistry, oral surgery, and medicine: A 3-year bibliometric analysis.Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice, 18(4), 269-274.
[40] Ma Y.,McBratney, A., & Minasny, B.(2021). Paper self-citation rates of leading soil science journals. Catena, 202, 105232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105232
[41] Mavrogenis A. F., Ruggieri P., & Papagelopoulos P. J. (2010). Self-citation in publishing.Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 468(10), 2803-2807.
[42] McQuarrie, D. A. (2003). Mathematical methods for scientists and engineers. University Science Books.
[43] Mehrad, J., & Goltaji, M. (2010). Correlation between journal self-citation and impact factor in medical scientific journals indexed in published journal citation reports of Islamic world science citation database.Health Information Management, 7(3), 259.
[44] Mimouni, M., & Segal, O. (2014). Self-citation rate and impact factor in ophthalmology.Ophthalmic Research, 52(3), 136-140.
[45] Minasny B., Hartemink A. E., & McBratney A. (2010). Individual, country, and journal self-citation in soil science.Geoderma, 155(3-4), 434-438.
[46] Mishra S., Fegley B. D., Diesner J., & Torvik V. I. (2018). Self-citation is the hallmark of productive authors, of any gender.PLoS One, 13(9), e0195773.
[47] Nisonger, T. E. (2000). Use of Journal Citation Reports for serials management in research libraries: An investigation of the effect of self-citation on journal rankings in library and information science and genetics.College & Research Libraries, 61, 263-275.
[48] Phan-Thien, N., & Giacomin, A. J. (2024). Growth-adjusted impact factor. Physics of Fluids, 36(5), 050402, Part 1 of 4, 1-3. Erratum: Above Eq.(4), p3 should be p2.
[49] Phan-Thien N., Giacomin A. J., Kanso M. A., Pan D., & Zatloukal M. (2024). Growth-adjusted CiteScore. Physics of Fluids, 36(7), 070403, 1-3.
[50] Pipes, L. A. (1958). Applied mathematics for engineers and physicists (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
[51] Quincho-Lopez, A. (2024). Comparison of journal and top publisher self-citation rates in COVID-19 research. PLoS One, 19(12), e0314976. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314976
[52] Reiter O., Mimouni M., & Mimouni D. (2016). Analysis of self-citation and impact factor in dermatology journals.International Journal of Dermatology, 55(9), 995-999.
[53] Rektorys, K. (1969). Ordinary differential equations. In K. Rektorys (Ed.), Survey of applicable mathematics (Chap. 17, R. Výborný, Trans.). M.I.T. Press. (Original work published 1968)
[54] Rektorys, K. (1995). Obyčejné diferenciální rovnice. In K. Rektorys (Ed.), Přehled užité matematiky II(6th ed., Chap. 17). Prometheus.
[55] Rousseau, R. (1999). Temporal differences in self-citation rates of scientific journals. Scientometrics, 44, 521-531. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458493
[56] Sanfilippo F., Tigano S., Morgana A., Murabito P., & Astuto M. (2021). Self-citation policies and journal self-citation rate among Critical Care Medicine journals. Journal of Intensive Care, 9, Article 1-5.
[57] Seglen, P. O. (1998). Citation rates and journal impact factors are not suitable for evaluation of research.Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavica, 69(3), 224-229.
[58] Shen Z., Zhang J., & Zeng A. (2024). Under-representativeness of physical chemistry journals. ChemRxiv. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-xj25g
[59] Siebelt M., Siebelt T., Pilot P., Bloem R. M., Bhandari M., & Poolman R. W. (2010). Citation analysis of orthopaedic literature; 18 major orthopaedic journals compared for Impact Factor and SCImago.BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 11, 1-7.
[60] Spiegel, M. R. (1967). Applied differential equations (2nd ed.). Prentice-Hall.
[61] Straub, D. W., & Anderson, C. (2009). Journal self-citation VI: Forced journal self-citation-Common, appropriate, ethical?.Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 25(1), 6.
[62] Szomszor M., Pendlebury D. A., & Adams J. (2020). How much is too much? The difference between research influence and self-citation excess.Scientometrics, 123(2), 1119-1147.
[63] Tagliacozzo, R. (1977). Self-citations in scientific literature.Journal of Documentation, 33(4), 251-265.
[64] Taşkın Z., Doğan G., Kulczycki E.,& Zuccala, A. A.(2021). Self-citation patterns of journals indexed in the Journal Citation Reports. Journal of Informetrics, 15(4), 101221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2021.101221
[65] Tighe P., Rice K. J., & Gravenstein N. (2011). Artifactual increase in journal self-citation.Anesthesia & Analgesia, 113(2), 378-382.
[66] Trimble, V. (1986). A note on self-citation rates in astronomical papers.Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 98(610), 1347.
[67] Tsay, M.-Y. (2006). Journal self-citation study for semiconductor literature: Synchronous and diachronous approach.Information Processing & Management, 42(6), 1567-1577.
[68] Van Schaftingen E., Hue L., & Hers H.-G. (1980). Study of the fructose 6-phosphate/fructose 1,6-bisphosphate cycle in the liver in vivo.Biochemical Journal, 192(1), 263-271.
[69] Vanclay, J. K. (2013). Factors affecting citation rates in environmental science.Journal of Informetrics, 7(2), 265-271.
[70] Walas, S. M. (1959). Reaction kinetics for chemical engineers. McGraw-Hill.
[71] Yang Z.-G., Gao F., & Zhang C.-T. (2012). Comparison of journal self-citation rates between some Chinese and non-Chinese international journals. PLoS One, 7(11), e49001. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049001
[72] Yu T., Yu G., & Wang M.-Y. (2014). Classification method for detecting coercive self-citation in journals.Journal of Informetrics, 8(1), 123-135.
[73] Zatloukal M., Giacomin A. J., & Phan-Thien N. (2024a). The growth-adjusted impact factors of Physics of Fluids. Physics of Fluids, 36(8), 080401, 1-3.
[74] Zatloukal M., Giacomin A. J., & Phan-Thien N. (2024b). The growth-adjusted CiteScores of Physics of Fluids. Physics of Fluids, 36(8), 080402, 1-3.
[75] Zhou, Y. (2021). Self-citation and citation of top journal publishers and their interpretation in the journal-discipline context.Scientometrics, 126(7), 6013-6040.
[76] Zhou, Y. (2022). Factors, components and dynamics: Investigation of journal self-citation and citation by equal opportunity model. Heliyon, 8(8), e10292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10292
Options
Outlines

/

〈 〉

京ICP备05002861号-43

Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved Journal of Data and Information Science

E-mail: jdis@mail.las.ac.cn　Add:No.33, Beisihuan Xilu, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China

Support by Beijing Magtech Co.ltd　E-mail: support@magtech.com.cn