Distribution of Article Citation Frequency, Citation Skew, and Impact Factor in Otolaryngology Journals

The objectives of this study were to determine the degree of citation skew in otolaryngology journals and how article citation distribution affects their impact factors (IFs). Forty-one "otorhinolaryngology" journals in the Clarivate Journal Citation Reports database were identified and their article citation data from 2017 to 2020 extracted. Article citation frequency was remarkably similar across most journals, consistent with the narrow distribution of IFs (mean [SD], 1.9 [0.9]). Although the percentage of a journal's articles cited more than its IF during the IF citation window (mean [SD] of 32.4% [7.9%] of journals' articles)-reflecting citation skew-was not correlated with IF, the percentage of a journal's articles that were cited at least once (mean [SD] of 62.5% [15.3%] of articles) was highly correlated (ρ = 0.92, P < .001) with its IF. Although citation skew exists, otolaryngology journals' overall portfolios of published works-not a small number of highly cited articles causing citation skew-likely predominate their IFs.