Self-Citation and Researcher Impact: What Readers Should Know

Researchers often build on prior methods, datasets or findings, making some self-references scientifically relevant. An unusually high share may warrant closer reading, but a percentage alone does not establish manipulation.

A citation may be called self-citation when the citing and cited papers share at least one author, or under narrower definitions relating to a specific researcher. Large teams and frequent collaboration complicate these measures.

Calculating self-citation-adjusted metrics requires sufficiently complete citation and authorship links. Missing source data can make a supposedly precise adjusted figure worse than a transparently unadjusted count.

ResearchHub's current methodology distinguishes metrics it can document from planned future enhancements. Users should not assume a self-citation exclusion has been performed unless the applicable published version expressly states so.