The Impact of Country Self-Citation Rate Among Medical Specialties in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of country self-citation rate (SCR) among medical specialties in Saudi Arabia, and to assess the impact of self-citations on the country's total cites world ranking in different specialties. MethodsSCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) was used to collect data related to all medical specialties in Saudi Arabia for the period 1996-2019. The country SCR for the specialties was correlated with several bibliometric parameters and examined statistically. The specialties that showed a drop in Saudi Arabia's total cites world ranking following the exclusion of self-citations were identified. ResultsThe median country SCR for 46 specialties in Saudi Arabia was 9.5% (range: 4.6-23.1%). The two specialties with the highest country SCR were Public Health (23.1%) and Family Practice (22.9%). Country SCR was significantly higher in the non-clinical specialties compared to clinical specialties (15.3% vs. 9.6%). It did not correlate significantly with any of the examined productivity indices. The exclusion of self-citations resulted in a drop in Saudi Arabia's total cites world ranking in six (13%) specialties only. There was no significant difference between the country's total cites and net total cites world rankings in the specialties. ConclusionsSelf-citation may be appropriate and signify an expansion of the authors' previous work. Country SCR in medical specialties in Saudi Arabia is relatively low and not affected by total documents and total cites. Non-clinical specialties tend to self-cite more. The exclusion of self-citations had minimal effect on Saudi Arabia's total cites world ranking, indicating that country SCR in the specialties is unlikely to impact its international scientific standing. Our findings do not support the argument for eliminating self-citation from citation-based metrics. We believe that more collaborative and global research practices should be encouraged.

Research trends in ulcerative colitis: A bibliometric and visualized study from 2011 to 2021

“…One kind of citation is self-citation, which involves citations of one’s own work ( Aksnes, 2003 ). Multiple subtypes of self-citation exist, including author self-citation, journal self-citation, institutional self-citation, and publisher self-citation ( Bardeesi et al, 2021 ). Self-citations will be analyzed from the perspective of the institution and the author in this study.…”

“…In the early years from 2011 to 2013, UC research began to focus on (Actis et al, 2019) cystic fibrosis, asthma, breast cancer, and osteoporosis (Kaplan, 2015); primary sclerosing cholangitis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and ankylosing spondylitis (Wilks, 1859); celiac disease, pouchitis, and familial adenomatous polyposis (Viola et al, 2021); abnormal motility, colonic permeability, and enteric nervous system (Nguyen et al, 2018); adipose tissue (Lucaciu et al, 2021); epidemiology, gene polymorphism, susceptibility loci, drug delivery, and activity index (Connelly et al, 2016); dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) and acetic acid (Schöffel et al, 2021); guinea pig (Schöffel et al, 2016); N-acetylcysteine, fish oil, and vitamin D (Chen, 2006); 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA), sulfasalazine, olsalazine, and chitosan (Van Eck and Waltman, 2010); cyclosporin, 6-mercaptopurine, methotrexate, and azathioprine (Aksnes, 2003); certolizumab pegol, infliximab, etanercept, adalimumab, and tacrolimus (Bardeesi et al, 2021); Adacolumn, leukocytapheresis, and apheresis (Freeman, 1977); probiotics, antibiotic therapy, curcumin, traditional Chinese medicine, and electroacupuncture (Cobo et al, 2011); colectomy, ileostomy, and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis; (Kessler, 1963); liver transplantation (Marshakova, 1973); confocal laser endomicroscopy and PillCam colon capsule endoscopy (Small, 1973); C-reactive protein, lactoferrin, and fecal calprotectin (Sandborn et al, 2012a); E-cadherin (Sandborn et al, 2017); Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus infection (Feagan et al, 2013); Helicobacter pylori, gut microbiota, Escherichia coli, and Clostridium difficile infection (Kleinberg, 2003); short-chain fatty acids, butyrate, and bile acid (Cohen et al, 2010); innate immunity (Ng et al, 2017); regulatory T (T reg ) cell, T helper 17 (Th17) cell, natural killer T cell, and mast cell (Burisch et al, 2020); enterochromaffin cell (Livas et al, 2021); antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody and anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibody (Glänzel and Thijs, 2004); angiogenesis...…”

A global exploratory comparison of country self-citations 1996-2019

“…The strategy of affiliating to Saudi Arabia universities external highly cited researchers for improving rankings received early criticism [105][106][107]. Nonetheless, [108] claims that self-citations are not anomalous in Saudi Arabia, at least in the medical specialties.…”

Author Self-Citation in the Turkish Otorhinolaryngology Literature

“…Self-citation is a type of citation that refers to citing one’s own work ( 5 ). It comprises multiple subtypes that are ascribed for authors, journals, institutions, countries, and languages ( 6 ). Self-citations are likely to be an inevitable entity for productive researchers especially focus on a specific field since they have a higher probability to cite their own papers ( 7 ).…”

“…Author self-citation is simply defined as any instance where a given author cites their own articles in subsequent scholarly works ( 11 ). The role of author self-citation in different medical specialties including otorhinolaryngology (ORL) has been investigated in the literature ( 6 , 7 , 8 , 15 , 16 , 17 ). However, the prevalence and other characteristics of author self-citation in Turkish ORL literature are unidentified to date.…”