IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v126y2021i1d10.1007_s11192-020-03759-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of the reference list features on the number of citations

Author

Listed:
  • Stefano Mammola

    (National Research Council
    University of Helsinki)

  • Diego Fontaneto

    (National Research Council)

  • Alejandro Martínez

    (National Research Council)

  • Filipe Chichorro

    (University of Helsinki)

Abstract

Many believe that the quality of a scientific publication is as good as the science it cites. However, quantifications of how features of reference lists affect citations remain sparse. We examined seven numerical characteristics of reference lists of 50,878 research articles published in 17 ecological journals between 1997 and 2017. Over this period, significant changes occurred in reference lists’ features. On average, more recent papers have longer reference lists and cite more high Impact Factor papers and fewer non-journal publications. We also show that highly cited articles across the ecological literature have longer reference lists, cite more recent and impactful references, and include more self-citations. Conversely, the proportion of ‘classic’ papers and non-journal publications cited, as well as the temporal span of the reference list, have no significant influence on articles’ citations. From this analysis, we distill a recipe for crafting impactful reference lists, at least in ecology.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Mammola & Diego Fontaneto & Alejandro Martínez & Filipe Chichorro, 2021. "Impact of the reference list features on the number of citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 785-799, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:126:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-020-03759-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-020-03759-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-020-03759-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-020-03759-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Natsuo Onodera & Fuyuki Yoshikane, 2015. "Factors affecting citation rates of research articles," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(4), pages 739-764, April.
    2. Günter Krampen, 2010. "Acceleration of citing behavior after the millennium? Exemplary bibliometric reference analyses for psychology journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(2), pages 507-513, May.
    3. Esther Landhuis, 2016. "Scientific literature: Information overload," Nature, Nature, vol. 535(7612), pages 457-458, July.
    4. H. P. F. Peters & A. F. J. van Raan, 1994. "On determinants of citation scores: A case study in chemical engineering," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 45(1), pages 39-49, January.
    5. Letchford, Adrian & Preis, Tobias & Moat, Helen Susannah, 2016. "The advantage of simple paper abstracts," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8.
    6. D. R. Amancio & M. G. V. Nunes & O. N. Oliveira & L. F. Costa, 2012. "Using complex networks concepts to assess approaches for citations in scientific papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 827-842, June.
    7. Fereshteh Didegah & Mike Thelwall, 2013. "Determinants of research citation impact in nanoscience and nanotechnology," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(5), pages 1055-1064, May.
    8. Per Ahlgren & Cristian Colliander & Peter Sjögårde, 2018. "Exploring the relation between referencing practices and citation impact: A large†scale study based on Web of Science data," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 69(5), pages 728-743, May.
    9. Shubhanshu Mishra & Brent D Fegley & Jana Diesner & Vetle I Torvik, 2018. "Self-citation is the hallmark of productive authors, of any gender," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, September.
    10. Ling-Ling Wu & Mu-Hsuan Huang & Ching-Yi Chen, 2012. "Citation patterns of the pre-web and web-prevalent environments: The moderating effects of domain knowledge," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(11), pages 2182-2194, November.
    11. Tian Yu & Guang Yu & Peng-Yu Li & Liang Wang, 2014. "Citation impact prediction for scientific papers using stepwise regression analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(2), pages 1233-1252, November.
    12. James H. Fowler & Dag W. Aksnes, 2007. "Does self-citation pay?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(3), pages 427-437, September.
    13. Tahamtan, Iman & Bornmann, Lutz, 2018. "Core elements in the process of citing publications: Conceptual overview of the literature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 203-216.
    14. Iman Tahamtan & Askar Safipour Afshar & Khadijeh Ahamdzadeh, 2016. "Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1195-1225, June.
    15. Dag W. Aksnes, 2003. "A macro study of self-citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(2), pages 235-246, February.
    16. Philip Ball, 2008. "A longer paper gathers more citations," Nature, Nature, vol. 455(7211), pages 274-274, September.
    17. Fereshteh Didegah & Mike Thelwall, 2013. "Determinants of research citation impact in nanoscience and nanotechnology," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(5), pages 1055-1064, May.
    18. Éric Archambault & Vincent Larivière, 2009. "History of the journal impact factor: Contingencies and consequences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(3), pages 635-649, June.
    19. Yassine Gargouri & Chawki Hajjem & Vincent Larivière & Yves Gingras & Les Carr & Tim Brody & Stevan Harnad, 2010. "Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-12, October.
    20. Ling‐Ling Wu & Mu‐Hsuan Huang & Ching‐Yi Chen, 2012. "Citation patterns of the pre‐web and web‐prevalent environments: The moderating effects of domain knowledge," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(11), pages 2182-2194, November.
    21. Vincent Larivière & Yves Gingras & Éric Archambault, 2009. "The decline in the concentration of citations, 1900–2007," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(4), pages 858-862, April.
    22. Nick Haslam & Lauren Ban & Leah Kaufmann & Stephen Loughnan & Kim Peters & Jennifer Whelan & Sam Wilson, 2008. "What makes an article influential? Predicting impact in social and personality psychology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 76(1), pages 169-185, July.
    23. Glänzel Wolfgang & Thijs Bart & Schlemmer Balázs, 2004. "A bibliometric approach to the role of author self-citations in scientific communication," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 59(1), pages 63-77, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Leonardo Grilli, 2024. "The role of non-scientific factors vis-à-vis the quality of publications in determining their scholarly impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(8), pages 5003-5019, August.
    2. Martorell Cunil, Onofre & Otero González, Luis & Durán Santomil, Pablo & Mulet Forteza, Carlos, 2023. "How to accomplish a highly cited paper in the tourism, leisure and hospitality field," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Brito, Ana C.M. & Silva, Filipi N. & Amancio, Diego R., 2021. "Associations between author-level metrics in subsequent time periods," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    4. Peter Sjögårde & Fereshteh Didegah, 2022. "The association between topic growth and citation impact of research publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1903-1921, April.
    5. Rayanne Barros Setubal & Daniel Silva Farias & Clarice Casa Nova & Anna Carolina Fornero Aguiar & Tauany Aparecida Silva Santa Rosa Rodrigues & Rafael Teixeira Santos Lira & Anderson Luiz Vargas Ferre, 2022. "Microwave effect: analyzing citations from classic theories and their reinventions—a case study from a classic paper in aquatic ecology—Brooks & Dodson, 1965," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(8), pages 4751-4767, August.
    6. Libo Sheng & Dongqing Lyu & Xuanmin Ruan & Hongquan Shen & Ying Cheng, 2023. "The association between prior knowledge and the disruption of an article," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4731-4751, August.
    7. Ha, Taehyun, 2022. "An explainable artificial-intelligence-based approach to investigating factors that influence the citation of papers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    8. Liu, Jialin & Chen, Hongkan & Liu, Zhibo & Bu, Yi & Gu, Weiye, 2022. "Non-linearity between referencing behavior and citation impact: A large-scale, discipline-level analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    9. Stefano Mammola & Elena Piano & Alberto Doretto & Enrico Caprio & Dan Chamberlain, 2022. "Measuring the influence of non-scientific features on citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(7), pages 4123-4137, July.
    10. Chunli Wei & Jingyi Zhao & Jue Ni & Jiang Li, 2023. "What does open peer review bring to scientific articles? Evidence from PLoS journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(5), pages 2763-2776, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martorell Cunil, Onofre & Otero González, Luis & Durán Santomil, Pablo & Mulet Forteza, Carlos, 2023. "How to accomplish a highly cited paper in the tourism, leisure and hospitality field," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    2. Guoqiang Liang & Haiyan Hou & Xiaodan Lou & Zhigang Hu, 2019. "Qualifying threshold of “take-off” stage for successfully disseminated creative ideas," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(3), pages 1193-1208, September.
    3. Liang, Guoqiang & Hou, Haiyan & Ding, Ying & Hu, Zhigang, 2020. "Knowledge recency to the birth of Nobel Prize-winning articles: Gender, career stage, and country," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3).
    4. Liu, Jialin & Chen, Hongkan & Liu, Zhibo & Bu, Yi & Gu, Weiye, 2022. "Non-linearity between referencing behavior and citation impact: A large-scale, discipline-level analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    5. Kaile Gong & Juan Xie & Ying Cheng & Vincent Larivière & Cassidy R. Sugimoto, 2019. "The citation advantage of foreign language references for Chinese social science papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(3), pages 1439-1460, September.
    6. Stegehuis, Clara & Litvak, Nelly & Waltman, Ludo, 2015. "Predicting the long-term citation impact of recent publications," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 642-657.
    7. Copiello, Sergio, 2019. "Peer and neighborhood effects: Citation analysis using a spatial autoregressive model and pseudo-spatial data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 238-254.
    8. Ajiferuke, Isola & Famoye, Felix, 2015. "Modelling count response variables in informetric studies: Comparison among count, linear, and lognormal regression models," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 499-513.
    9. Mingyang Wang & Zhenyu Wang & Guangsheng Chen, 2019. "Which can better predict the future success of articles? Bibliometric indices or alternative metrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1575-1595, June.
    10. 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).
    11. Lanu Kim & Jason H. Portenoy & Jevin D. West & Katherine W. Stovel, 2020. "Scientific journals still matter in the era of academic search engines and preprint archives," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(10), pages 1218-1226, October.
    12. Basma Albanna & Julia Handl & Richard Heeks, 2021. "Publication outperformance among global South researchers: An analysis of individual-level and publication-level predictors of positive deviance," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(10), pages 8375-8431, October.
    13. Lutz Bornmann & Adam Y. Ye & Fred Y. Ye, 2018. "Identifying “hot papers” and papers with “delayed recognition” in large-scale datasets by using dynamically normalized citation impact scores," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 655-674, August.
    14. Bornmann, Lutz, 2019. "Does the normalized citation impact of universities profit from certain properties of their published documents – such as the number of authors and the impact factor of the publishing journals? A mult," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 170-184.
    15. Bornmann, Lutz & Haunschild, Robin & Mutz, Rüdiger, 2020. "Should citations be field-normalized in evaluative bibliometrics? An empirical analysis based on propensity score matching," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    16. Iman Tahamtan & Askar Safipour Afshar & Khadijeh Ahamdzadeh, 2016. "Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1195-1225, June.
    17. Ruan, Xuanmin & Zhu, Yuanyang & Li, Jiang & Cheng, Ying, 2020. "Predicting the citation counts of individual papers via a BP neural network," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3).
    18. Bornmann, Lutz & Tekles, Alexander, 2021. "Convergent validity of several indicators measuring disruptiveness with milestone assignments to physics papers by experts," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    19. Yu-Wei Chang, 2021. "Characteristics of high research performance authors in the field of library and information science and those of their articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3373-3391, April.
    20. Stefano Mammola & Elena Piano & Alberto Doretto & Enrico Caprio & Dan Chamberlain, 2022. "Measuring the influence of non-scientific features on citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(7), pages 4123-4137, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:126:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-020-03759-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.