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. 2022 Mar 30;20(3):168-173.
doi: 10.1080/2090598X.2022.2056976. eCollection 2022.

Author self-citations in the urology literature

Vaibhav Aggarwal  1
Affiliations

Author self-citations in the urology literature

Vaibhav Aggarwal. Arab J Urol. .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to determine the diachronous self-citation rate and the various article characteristics which can influence the rate and percentage of diachronous author self-citations using papers published in high-rank urology journals.

Methods: We included all papers (N = 327 articles) published between January 2015 to April 2015 in the European Urology, The Journal of Urology and the BJU International. We determined author self-citations using the Scopus database and used negative binomial regression to determine which article characteristics affect self-citations.

Results: 262 articles (80.2%) contained at least one self-citation.The mean number and percentage of author self-citations were 6.5 and 14.2 respectively. Adjusted analysis showed that the experimental/animal study design and the number of authors were significantly associated with both the number (IRR = 2.12, P = 0.011; IRR = 1.03, P = 0.002) and percentage of author self-citations (IRR = 2.95, P = 0.003; IRR = 1.03, P = 0.012). The number of citations in the Scopus and publication in European Urology were significantly associated with only the number of author self-citations.

Conclusion: Diachronous author self-citation rate in urology is higher compared to general medical literature but similar to other surgical subspecialties. It may depend on the study design and the number of authors in the paper. For a more comprehensive evaluation, future studies should look at the context in which self-citations were made.

Keywords: Author self-citations; bibliometrics; diachronous self-citations; negative binomial regression.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A. Frequency distribution of number of author self citations. B. Frequency distribution of percentage of author self citations. The distributions are right skewed and follow a negative binomial pattern.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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