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The objective of the present study is twofold: (1) to show the aims and means of quantitative interpretation of bibliographic features in bibliometrics and their re-interpretation in research policy, and (2) to summarise the state-of-art in self-citation research. The authors describe three approaches to the role of author self-citations and possible conflicts arising from the different perspectives.From the bibliometric viewpoint we can conclude that that there is no reason for condemning self-citations in general or for removing them from macro or meso statistics; supplementary indicators based on self-citations are, nonetheless, useful to understand communication patterns.

Two major multidisciplinary bibliographic databases, the Science Citation Index and the Social Science Citation Index were searched to collect science and social science journal articles published in the 1987-2001 period with the report 'Our Common Future' among their references. A statistical overview is given about the trends and patterns revealed by the bibliometric/scientometric analysis of the retrieved literature. National and regional distributions as well as publication channels and thematic features are considered. During the period under study, the word 'sustainability' became the dominating term of the field, and operative questions like those of management, technology and urbanization came into the forefront of interest.

International co-authorship is generally thought and often found to have positive effects on the citation rate of scientific publications. We study the effect quantitatively in the example of four major and four medium Hungarian universities. The conclusions may be generalized to other countries of similar international status.