What Effect Does Self-Citation Have on Bibliometric Measures in Academic Plastic Surgery?

Area of Science:

• Bibliometrics
• Academic Publishing
• Plastic Surgery Research

Background:

• Bibliometric measures, such as citation counts, are crucial for academic promotion.
• The increasing volume of publications may allow for self-citation influence on bibliometric data.
• This study investigates the effect of self-citation in academic plastic surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the impact of self-citation on bibliometric measures in academic plastic surgery.
• To assess whether self-citation influences the h-index and total citation counts.
• To determine if self-citation varies across academic ranks and research productivity levels.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 169 full-time academic plastic surgeons from 9 U.S. programs was analyzed.
• Bibliometric data, including h-index and total citations, were collected from Scopus.
• Data were compared with and without self-citations to calculate percentage changes.

Main Results:

• Self-citation removal led to a minor decrease in the h-index (2.8%) and total citations (4.5%).
• 67% of surgeons showed no change in h-index after removing self-citations.
• Surgeons with >5% self-citation rates were more likely to have their h-index affected.

Conclusions:

• Self-citation has a minimal effect on bibliometric measures in academic plastic surgery.
• The impact of self-citation is consistent across academic ranks and productivity levels.
• Evidence suggests authors are not significantly manipulating bibliometric measures through self-citation.