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The weight of author self-citations. A fractional approach to self-citation counting

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Abstract

The discussion about how to treat author self-citations driven by policy application and quality measurement intensified in the last years. The definition introduced by Snyder and Bonzi has — in lack of any reasonable alternative — been used in bibliometric practice for science policy purposes. This method, however, does not take into account the weight of self-citing authors among coauthors of both the cited and citing papers. The objective of the present paper is to quantify the weight of self-citations with respect to co-authorship.

The analysis is conducted at two levels: at the macro level, namely, for fifteen subject fields and the most active forty countries, and at the meso level, for a set of selected research institutions.

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Correspondence to András Schubert.

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Schubert, A., Glänzel, W. & Thijs, B. The weight of author self-citations. A fractional approach to self-citation counting. Scientometrics 67, 503–514 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1556/Scient.67.2006.3.11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/Scient.67.2006.3.11

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