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. 2017;113(2):1199-1207.
doi: 10.1007/s11192-017-2490-z. Epub 2017 Aug 21.

Country over-citation ratios

Victoria Bakare  1 , Grant Lewison  1
Affiliations

Country over-citation ratios

Victoria Bakare et al. Scientometrics. 2017.

Abstract

There is a clear tendency for authors of scientific papers to over-cite the papers by their fellow countrymen (and countrywomen) relative to the percentage presence of their papers in world output in the same field. We investigated the Over-Citation Ratio (OCR) as a function of this percentage, and the effects of different scientific fields and publication years. For cancer research, we also compared clinical with basic research. We found that the OCR for a given percentage presence has been decreasing over the period 1980-2010, probably because of better communications. It is greater for fields of relatively more national interest (chemistry, ornithology) and less for those of international concern (astronomy, diabetes, cancer). It may also be slightly greater for basic cancer research than for clinical work. The OCR values given allow other types of citation, such as the references on clinical practice guidelines and papers featured in newspaper stories, to be put in context: are they unusually nationalistic, or typical of normal citation behaviour?

Keywords: Citing papers; Country data; Evaluation; Self-citations.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Plot of country over-citation ratio of its own papers in ornithology (research on birds) for 2010 for the 20 leading countries as a function of the country’s percentage presence in world ornithology research in that year. For country ISO2 codes, see Table 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Variation of Over-Citation Ratio (OCR) with time for a country publishing 1% of world research in five scientific fields
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Variation of Over-Citation Ratio (OCR) with time for a country publishing 3% of world research in five scientific fields
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Variation of Over-Citation Ratio (OCR) with time for a country publishing 10% of world research in five scientific fields
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Variation of Over-Citation Ratio (OCR) with time for a country publishing 1% of world research in three research domains of oncology
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Variation of Over-Citation Ratio (OCR) with time for a country publishing 3% of world research in three research domains of oncology
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Variation of Over-Citation Ratio (OCR) with time for a country publishing 10% of world research in three research domains of oncology
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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