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Why authors think their papers are highly cited

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  • Henry Small

    (Thomson ISI)

Abstract

A survey of authors of highly cited papers in 22 fields was undertaken in connection with a new bibliometric resource called Essential Science Indicators (ESI®). Authors were asked to give their opinions on why their papers are highly cited. They generally responded by describing specific internal, technical aspects of their work, relating them to external or social factors in their fields of study. These self-perceptions provide clues to the factors that lead to high citation rate, and the importance of the interaction between internal and external factors. Internal factors are revealed by the technical terminology used to describe the work, and how it is situated in the problem domain for the field. External factors are revealed by a different vocabulary describing how the work has been received within the field, or its implications for a wider audience. Each author's response regarding a highly cited work was analyzed on four dimensions: the author perception of its novelty, utility, significance, and interest. A co-occurrence analysis of the dimensions revealed that interest, the most socially based dimension, was most often paired with one of the other more internal dimensions, suggesting a synergy between internal and external factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Henry Small, 2004. "Why authors think their papers are highly cited," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(3), pages 305-316, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:60:y:2004:i:3:d:10.1023_b:scie.0000034376.55800.18
    DOI: 10.1023/B:SCIE.0000034376.55800.18
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Quentin L. Burrell, 2003. "Predicting future citation behavior," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 54(5), pages 372-378, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. John N. Parker & Christopher Lortie & Stefano Allesina, 2010. "Characterizing a scientific elite: the social characteristics of the most highly cited scientists in environmental science and ecology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(1), pages 129-143, October.
    2. Henry Small & Ann Kushmerick & Doug Benson, 2008. "Scientists’ perceptions of the social and political implications of their research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 74(2), pages 207-221, February.
    3. Li Xu & Dora Marinova, 2013. "Resilience thinking: a bibliometric analysis of socio-ecological research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(3), pages 911-927, September.
    4. Jian Zhang & Michael S. Vogeley & Chaomei Chen, 2011. "Scientometrics of big science: a case study of research in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(1), pages 1-14, January.
    5. Christopher J. Lortie & Lonnie W. Aarssen & Amber E. Budden & Roosa Leimu, 2013. "Do citations and impact factors relate to the real numbers in publications? A case study of citation rates, impact, and effect sizes in ecology and evolutionary biology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 675-682, February.
    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. Jonathan Adams & Karen Gurney & Stuart Marshall, 2007. "Profiling citation impact: A new methodology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(2), pages 325-344, August.
    8. Peiling Wang & Joshua Williams & Nan Zhang & Qiang Wu, 2020. "F1000Prime recommended articles and their citations: an exploratory study of four journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 933-955, February.
    9. S. Phineas Upham & Henry Small, 2010. "Emerging research fronts in science and technology: patterns of new knowledge development," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(1), pages 15-38, April.

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