Frandsen, TF; Nicolaisen, J. 2011. Praise the Bridge That Carries You Over: Testing the Flattery Citation Hypothesis. JASIST 62 (5): 807-818.

[Eugene Garfield]

Frandsen, TF; Nicolaisen, J. 2011. Praise the Bridge That Carries You Over: 
Testing the Flattery Citation Hypothesis. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 
FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 62 (5): 807-818..

Author Full Name(s): Frandsen, Tove Faber; Nicolaisen, Jeppe
Language: English
Document Type: Article

KeyWords Plus: JOURNAL IMPACT FACTORS; ECONOMICS JOURNALS; ORTEGA 
HYPOTHESIS; PUBLICATION LAGS; SCIENCE; ECONOMETRICS; SLOWDOWN; 
QUALITY

Abstract: Flattery citations of editors, potential referees, and so on have been 
claimed to be a common strategy among academic authors. From a sociology of 
science perspective as well as from a citation analytical perspective, it is both 
an interesting claim and a consequential one. The article presents a citation 
analysis of the editorial board members entering the American Economic Review 
from 1984 to 2004 using a citation window of 11 years. To test the flattery 
citation hypothesis further, we have conducted a study applying the 
difference-in-differences estimator. We analyze the number of times the editors 
and editorial board members of the American Economic Review were cited in 
articles published in the journal itself as well as in a pool of documents 
comprising articles from the Journal of Political Economy and the Quarterly 
Journal of Economics. The results of the analyses do not support the existence 
of a flattery citation effect.

Addresses: [Frandsen, Tove Faber] Univ So Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, 
Denmark; [Nicolaisen, Jeppe] Royal Sch Lib & Informat Sci, DK-2300 
Copenhagen S, Denmark
Reprint Address: Frandsen, TF, Univ So Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 
Odense M, Denmark.

E-mail Address: tofr at litcul.sdu.dk; jni at iva.dk
ISSN: 1532-2882
DOI: 10.1002/asi.21503
URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21503/abstract