Is Self-Citation Biased? An Investigation via the Lens of Citation Polarity, Density, and Location
Is Self-Citation Biased? An Investigation via the Lens of Citation Polarity, Density, and Location
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DOI：
10.1007/s10796-018-9889-9
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发表时间：
2018-12
影响因子：
5.9
通讯作者：
Lina Zhou;Uchechukwuka Amadi;Dongsong Zhang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lina Zhou;Uchechukwuka Amadi;Dongsong Zhang
传统的引文分析方法由于其统计计数的理论基础不能反映引文作者的动机或判断而受到批评。特别是，自引可能会给被引文章带来不应有的荣誉或误导科学发展。本研究旨在通过对引文动机和引文语境的探讨来回答自引是否存在偏见的问题。它通过多个镜头（极性、密度和引用位置）检查自我引用，从而对自我引用进行集成和细粒度的观察。此外，本文还首次探讨了引文水平的潜在调节作用以及同一参考文献的引文位置上下文之间的关联。我们使用定性和定量方法分析了不同主题和学科的学术出版物。结果表明，自引在被引密度和极性不确定性方面不存在偏倚，但在被引的正负性方面存在偏倚。此外，本研究还揭示了自引行为对引文密度、位置集中度和关联关系等引用模式的影响。从这些新的视角审视自引行为，有助于对自引行为的本质和功能有新的认识。
Traditional citation analysis methods have been criticized because their theoretical base of statistical counts does not reflect the motive or judgment of citing authors. In particular, self-citations may give undue credits to a cited article or mislead scientific development. This research aims to answer the question of whether self-citation is biased by probing into the motives and context of citations. It takes an integrated and fine-grained view of self-citations by examining them via multiple lenses — polarity, density, and location of citations. In addition, it explores potential moderating effects of citation level and associations among location contexts of citations to the same references for the first time. We analyzed academic publications across different topics and disciplines using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results provide evidence that self-citations are free of bias in terms of citation density and polarity uncertainty, but they can be biased with respect to positivity and negativity of citations. Furthermore, this study reveals impacts of self-citing behavior on some citation patterns involving citation density, location concentration, and associations. The examination of self-citing behavior from those new perspectives shed new lights on the nature and function of self-citing behavior.