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Self‐citation and self‐reference: Credibility and promotion in academic publication

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  • Ken Hyland

Abstract

Author self‐citation has long been of interest to those working in informetrics for what it reveals about the publishing behavior of individuals and their relationships within academic networks. While this research has produced interesting insights, it typically assumes either that self‐citation is a neutral form of reporting not unlike references to others' work or an unsavory kind of academic egotism. By examining self‐citation in a wider context of self‐mention, however, the phenomenon can be seen as part of a more comprehensive rhetorical strategy for emphasizing a writer's personal contribution to a piece of research and strengthening his or her knowledge claims, research credibility, and wider standing in the discipline. These meanings are not easily revealed through quantitative bibliometric methods and require careful text analyses and discourse‐based interviews with academics. In this paper I explore the use of self‐citation and authorial mention in a corpus of 240 research articles and 800 abstracts in eight disciplines. Through an analysis of these texts and interviews with expert informants I show how self‐mention is used and the ways these uses reflect both the promotional strategies of individuals and the epistemological practices of their disciplines.

Suggested Citation

  • Ken Hyland, 2003. "Self‐citation and self‐reference: Credibility and promotion in academic publication," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 54(3), pages 251-259, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:54:y:2003:i:3:p:251-259
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.10204
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    Cited by:

    1. Rabishankar Giri & Sabuj Kumar Chaudhuri, 2021. "Ranking journals through the lens of active visibility," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2189-2208, March.
    2. Moustafa, Khaled, 2018. "Aberration of the citation," arabixiv.org gn8zb, Center for Open Science.
    3. Paulo Henrique Santos Gonçalves & Thiago Gonçalves-Souza & Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque, 2020. "Chronic anthropogenic disturbances in ecology: a bibliometric approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 1103-1117, May.
    4. Michelle L. Dion & Sara McLaughlin Mitchell & Jane L. Sumner, 2020. "Gender, seniority, and self-citation practices in political science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 1-28, October.
    5. Ibrahim Shehatta & Abdullah M. Al-Rubaish, 2019. "Impact of country self-citations on bibliometric indicators and ranking of most productive countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 775-791, August.
    6. John S. Liu & Louis Y. Y. Lu & Mei Hsiu-Ching Ho, 2019. "A few notes on main path analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(1), pages 379-391, April.
    7. Daniela Filippo & Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent & Elías Sanz-Casado, 2020. "Toward a classification of Spanish scholarly journals in social sciences and humanities considering their impact and visibility," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1709-1732, November.
    8. Lina Zhou & Uchechukwuka Amadi & Dongsong Zhang, 2020. "Is Self-Citation Biased? An Investigation via the Lens of Citation Polarity, Density, and Location," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 77-90, February.
    9. Qianjin Zong, 2019. "Response to Dr. Copiello’s comments on “The impact of video abstract on citation counts”," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(3), pages 1499-1504, September.
    10. Jinhyo Joseph Yun & Zheng Liu & Euiseob Jeong & Sangwoo Kim & Kyunghun Kim, 2022. "The Difference in Open Innovation between Open Access and Closed Access, According to the Change of Collective Intelligence and Knowledge Amount," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-19, February.
    11. Taşkın, Zehra & Doğan, Güleda & Kulczycki, Emanuel & Zuccala, Alesia Ann, 2021. "Self-Citation Patterns of Journals Indexed in the Journal Citation Reports," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    12. 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.
    13. Abramo, Giovanni & D'Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea & Grilli, Leonardo, 2021. "The effects of citation-based research evaluation schemes on self-citation behavior," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    14. Gita Ghiasi & Catherine Beaudry & Vincent Larivière & Carl St-Pierre & Andrea Schiffauerova & Matthew Harsh, 2021. "Who profits from the Canadian nanotechnology reward system? Implications for gender-responsible innovation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7937-7991, September.
    15. Watinee Suntara & Siriluck Usaha, 2013. "Research Article Abstracts in Two Related Disciplines: Rhetorical Variation between Linguistics and Applied Linguistics," English Language Teaching, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(2), pages 1-84, February.
    16. Mathias Mund & Beatrix Kloft & Matthias Bundschuh & Doris Klingelhoefer & David A. Groneberg & Alexander Gerber, 2014. "Global Research on Smoking and Pregnancy—A Scientometric and Gender Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-15, May.

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