IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v70y2007i1d10.1007_s11192-007-0109-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Citation frequency: A biased measure of research impact significantly influenced by the geographical origin of research articles

Author

Listed:
  • Gerard Pasterkamp

    (Experimental Cardiology Laboratory)

  • Joris I. Rotmans

    (Experimental Cardiology Laboratory)

  • Dominique V. P. Kleijn

    (Experimental Cardiology Laboratory)

  • Cornelius Borst

    (Experimental Cardiology Laboratory)

Abstract

Context. The use of citation frequency and impact factor as measures of research quality and journal prestige is being criticized. Citation frequency is augmented by self-citation and for most journals the majority of citations originate from a minority of papers. We hypothesized that citation frequency is also associated with the geographical origin of the research publication. Objective. We determined whether citations originate more frequently from institutes that are located in the same country as the authors of the cited publication than would be expected by chance. Design. We screened citations referring to 1200 cardiovascular publications in the 7 years following their publication. For the 1200 citation recipient publications we documented the country where the research originated (9 countries/regions) and the total number of received citations. For a selection of 8864 citation donor papers we registered the country/region where the citing paper originated. Results. Self-citation was common in cardiovascular journals (n = 1534, 17.8%). After exclusion of self-citation, however, the number of citations that originated from the same country as the author of the citation recipient was found to be on average 31.6% higher than would be expected by chance (p

Suggested Citation

  • Gerard Pasterkamp & Joris I. Rotmans & Dominique V. P. Kleijn & Cornelius Borst, 2007. "Citation frequency: A biased measure of research impact significantly influenced by the geographical origin of research articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 70(1), pages 153-165, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:70:y:2007:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-007-0109-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-0109-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-007-0109-5
    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/s11192-007-0109-5?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. Thed N. van Leeuwen & Henk F. Moed, 2005. "Characteristics of journal impact factors: The effects of uncitedness and citation distribution on the understanding of journal impact factors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(2), pages 357-371, April.
    2. H. F. Moed & Th. N. Leeuwen & J. Reedijk, 1999. "Towards appropriate indicators of journal impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 46(3), pages 575-589, November.
    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. 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).
    2. Liu, Qiuling & Guo, Lei & Sun, Yiping & Ren, Linlin & Wang, Xinhua & Han, Xiaohui, 2024. "Do scholars' collaborative tendencies impact the quality of their publications? A generalized propensity score matching analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    3. Paul F. Skilton, 2009. "Does the human capital of teams of natural science authors predict citation frequency?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 78(3), pages 525-542, March.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. André Andrian Padial & João Carlos Nabout & Tadeu Siqueira & Luis Mauricio Bini & José Alexandre Felizola Diniz-Filho, 2010. "Weak evidence for determinants of citation frequency in ecological articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(1), pages 1-12, October.
    7. Thomas Gurney & Edwin Horlings & Peter van den Besselaar, 2012. "Author disambiguation using multi-aspect similarity indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(2), pages 435-449, May.
    8. Cong Cao & Tianlan Wei & Shengyuan Xu & Fan Su & Haiquan Fang, 2023. "Comprehensive evaluation of higher education systems using indicators: PCA and EWM methods," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Saeideh Ebrahimy & Farideh Osareh, 2014. "Design, validation, and reliability determination a citing conformity instrument at three levels: normative, informational, and identification," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(2), pages 581-597, May.
    10. Danielle H. Lee, 2019. "Predicting the research performance of early career scientists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1481-1504, December.
    11. Claudia N. Gonzalez-Brambila, 2014. "Social capital in academia," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(3), pages 1609-1625, December.
    12. Koen Frenken & Roderik Ponds & Frank Van Oort, 2010. "The citation impact of research collaboration in science‐based industries: A spatial‐institutional analysis," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(2), pages 351-271, June.
    13. Vicenç Hernández-González & Josep Maria Carné-Torrent & Carme Jové-Deltell & Álvaro Pano-Rodríguez & Joaquin Reverter-Masia, 2022. "The Top 100 Most Cited Scientific Papers in the Public, Environmental & Occupational Health Category of Web of Science: A Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-24, August.
    14. Blaise Cronin, 2012. "Language matters," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(2), pages 217-217, February.
    15. Alexander N. Larcombe & Sasha C. Voss, 2011. "Self-citation: comparison between Radiology, European Radiology and Radiology for 1997–1998," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(2), pages 347-356, May.
    16. Chiang Kao & Hsiou-Wei Lin & San-Lin Chung & Wei-Chi Tsai & Jyh-Shen Chiou & Yen-Liang Chen & Liang-Hsuan Chen & Shih-Chieh Fang & Hwei-Lan Pao, 2008. "Ranking Taiwanese management journals: A case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 76(1), pages 95-115, July.
    17. Michael S. Patterson & Simon Harris, 2009. "The relationship between reviewers’ quality-scores and number of citations for papers published in the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology from 2003–2005," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(2), pages 343-349, August.
    18. Fan, Lingxu & Guo, Lei & Wang, Xinhua & Xu, Liancheng & Liu, Fangai, 2022. "Does the author’s collaboration mode lead to papers’ different citation impacts? An empirical analysis based on propensity score matching," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    19. Christina H. Drew & Kristianna G. Pettibone & Fallis Owen Finch & Douglas Giles & Paul Jordan, 2016. "Automated Research Impact Assessment: a new bibliometrics approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(3), pages 987-1005, March.
    20. Nomaler, Önder & Frenken, Koen & Heimeriks, Gaston, 2013. "Do more distant collaborations have more citation impact?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 966-971.
    21. Guetz, Bernhard & Bidmon, Sonja, 2023. "The Credibility of Physician Rating Websites: A Systematic Literature Review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

    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. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    2. Wolfgang Glänzel, 2009. "The multi-dimensionality of journal impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 78(2), pages 355-374, February.
    3. Waltman, L. & van Eck, N.J.P., 2009. "A Taxonomy of Bibliometric Performance Indicators Based on the Property of Consistency," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2009-014-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    4. Geert Campenhout & Tom Caneghem & Steve Uytbergen, 2008. "A comparison of overall and sub-area journal influence: The case of the accounting literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 77(1), pages 61-90, October.
    5. Yutao Sun & Seamus Grimes, 2016. "The emerging dynamic structure of national innovation studies: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(1), pages 17-40, January.
    6. Ji-ping Gao & Cheng Su & Hai-yan Wang & Li-hua Zhai & Yun-tao Pan, 2019. "Research fund evaluation based on academic publication output analysis: the case of Chinese research fund evaluation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(2), pages 959-972, May.
    7. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Flavia Costa, 2023. "Correlating article citedness and journal impact: an empirical investigation by field on a large-scale dataset," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1877-1894, March.
    8. José Alberto Molina & David Iñiguez & Gonzalo Ruiz & Alfonso Tarancón, 2021. "Leaders among the leaders in Economics: a network analysis of the Nobel Prize laureates," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(7), pages 584-589, April.
    9. Máxima Bolaños-Pizarro & Bart Thijs & Wolfgang Glänzel, 2010. "Cardiovascular research in Spain. A comparative scientometric study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(2), pages 509-526, November.
    10. Wolfgang Glänzel & Henk F. Moed, 2002. "Journal impact measures in bibliometric research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 53(2), pages 171-193, February.
    11. Mladen Andreis & Maja Jokić, 2008. "An impact of Croatian journals measured by citation analysis from SCI-expanded database in time span 1975–2001," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(2), pages 263-288, May.
    12. Saralees Nadarajah & Samuel Kotz, 2007. "Models for citation behavior," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(2), pages 291-305, August.
    13. Zhichao Ba & Yujie Cao & Jin Mao & Gang Li, 2019. "A hierarchical approach to analyzing knowledge integration between two fields—a case study on medical informatics and computer science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1455-1486, June.
    14. Hu, Zewen & Wu, Yishan, 2014. "Regularity in the time-dependent distribution of the percentage of never-cited papers: An empirical pilot study based on the six journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 136-146.
    15. Zewen Hu & Yishan Wu & Jianjun Sun, 2018. "A quantitative analysis of determinants of non-citation using a panel data model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 843-861, August.
    16. Milojević, Staša & Radicchi, Filippo & Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2017. "Citation success index − An intuitive pair-wise journal comparison metric," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 223-231.
    17. José María Gómez-Sancho & María Jesús Mancebón-Torrubia, 2009. "The evaluation of scientific production: Towards a neutral impact factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 435-458, November.
    18. Peter Jacso, 2012. "Grim tales about the impact factor and the h-index in the Web of Science and the Journal Citation Reports databases: reflections on Vanclay’s criticism," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(2), pages 325-354, August.
    19. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    20. Tove Faber Frandsen, 2008. "On the ratio of citable versus non-citable items in economics journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 74(3), pages 439-451, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:70:y:2007:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-007-0109-5. 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.