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More reprint requests, more citations?

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Abstract

Reprint requests are commonly used to obtain a copy of an article. This study aims to correlate the number of reprint requests from a 10-year-sample of articles with the number of citations. The database contained 28 articles published in over a 10-year-period (1992-2001). For each separate article the number of citations and and the number of reprint requests were retrieved. In total 303 reprint requests were analysed. Reviews (median 9, range 1 to 95) and original articles (median 8, range 1-36) attracted most reprint requests. There was an excellent correlation between the number of requests and citations to article (two-tailed non-parametric Spearman rank test r = 0.55; 95% confidence interval 0.18-0.78, P < 0.005). Articles that received most reprint requests are cited more often.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center St. Radboud, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Joost P. H. Drenth

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  1. Joost P. H. Drenth
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Drenth, J.P.H. More reprint requests, more citations?. Scientometrics 56, 283–286 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021975313347

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021975313347

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