Query about journal (not author) self-citation rates (fwd)

[Stevan Harnad]

Thanks to Peter Suber for forwarding this from the FOS Forum:
http://www.topica.com/lists/fos-forum/read

>Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 14:19:05 -0500
>From: Garrett Eastman <eastman at rowland.harvard.edu>
>Organization: Rowland Institute at Harvard
>To: peters at earlham.edu
>Subject: Re: [FOS] Query about journal (not author) self-citation rates
>
>Eugene Garfield wrote about this in the seventies:
>Journal Citation Studies. XVII. Journal Self-Citation Rates -- ...
>http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v2p192y1974-76.pdf

This paper described a comparison made in the early '70's, of same-journal
citation counts, comparing the proportion of a journal's self-citations
to all incoming citations *to* that journal, i.e., self/in as well as their
proportion to all outgoing citations *from* that journal (self/out). There
is some interesting variation described, related to the journal's age
and hierarchical level, as well as its disciplinary range and whether
it is a review journal. The question of possible inflation to augment
the journal's citation impact factor is not mentioned.

Stevan Harnad