Disentangling visibility and self-promotion bias in the arXiv

[Stevan Harnad]

On 5-Aug-08, at 12:15 PM, Eugene Garfield wrote:

> Author(s): Dietrich, JP (Dietrich, J. P.)
>
> Title: Disentangling visibility and self-promotion bias in the arXiv :
> astro-ph positional citation effect
>
> Source: PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC, 120
> (869): 801-804 JUL 2008
> http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.0307v2
>
> Abstract: We established in an earlier study that articles listed at  
> or
> near the top of the daily arXiv:astro-ph mailings receive on average
> significantly more citations than articles further down the list. In  
> our
> earlier work we were not able to decide whether this positional  
> citation
> effect was due to author self-promotion of intrinsically more citable
> papers or whether papers are cited more often simply because they  
> are at
> the top of the astro-ph listing. Using new data we can now disentangle
> both effects. Based on their submission times we separate articles  
> into a
> selfpromoted sample and a sample of articles that achieved a high  
> rank on
> astro-ph by chance and compare their citation distributions with  
> those of
> articles in lower astro-ph positions. We find that the positional  
> citation
> effect is a superposition of self-promotion and visibility bias.

This interesting paper reports that in the physics Arxiv (astrophysics  
sector), where virtually all current articles in astrophysics are made  
OA in preprint form (hence there is no OA problem at all) several  
factors significantly influence citation counts:

(1) Arxiv provides a daily list of articles deposited. The articles  
higher on that list are more cited than the articles lower on that list.

(2) Whether an article appears higher on that list does not depend on  
merit. It depends on what time the article was deposited.

(3) Timing is predictable from time zones and geography, so if these  
two factors are controlled for, one can also identify which articles  
were (probably) deliberately timed by their authors so as to appear  
near the top of the list ("self-promotion").

(4) This study shows that even after one has removed any effect of  
self-promotion, appearing nearer the top of the list randomly still  
increases an article's citation count.

(5) In addition, self-promotion itself increases an article's citation  
count too. (The assumption is that the more self-promoted papers are  
better, hence more likely to have higher citation counts; this may or  
may not be the only or main reason why self-promotion further  
increases citations over and above the list position effect.)

The authors rightly point out that in a high-output field like  
astrophysics, visibility is an important factor in usage and  
citations, and authors need alerting and navigation aids based on  
importance, relevance and quality, rather than on random timing and  
author self-promotion biasses.

I would add that in fields, whether high- or low-output, that, unlike  
astrophsyics, are not yet OA, accessibility itself probably has much  
the same sort of effect on citations that visibility does in an OA  
field like astrophysics.

Stevan Harnad


> Addresses: ESO, D-85748 Garching B Munchen, Germany
> Reprint Address: Dietrich, JP, ESO, Karl Schwarzschild Str 2, D-85748
> Garching B Munchen, Germany.
> E-mail Address: jdietric -- eso.org
>
> DIETRICH JP
> The importance of being first: Position dependent citation rates on
> arXiv : astro-ph
> PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC 120 : 224 2008
http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.1037
>
>
> HABING H
> EUROPEAN REV 15 : 3 2007
>
> KURTZ MJ
> The effect of use and access on citations
> INFORMATION PROCESSING & MANAGEMENT 41 : 1395 DOI
> 10.1016/j.ipm.2005.03.010 2005
>
> MAGUE JP
> ARXIVSORTER DOCUMENT : 2007
>
> REDNER S
> How popular is your paper? An empirical study of the citation  
> distribution
> EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL B 4 : 131 1998