Analysis the effect of Self-Citation on the fluctuations of Impact Factor and Journal Quartiles in the PJCR.ISC Database

Aim: Citation analysis is one of the key indicators in evaluating the performance of journals and researchers, as citations reflect the dynamic nature of scientific communication within a community and influence the growth of science. Among these, the issue of unconventional self-citation is one of the major challenges in the evaluation of scientific outputs, which includes various types such as author self-citation, journal self-citation, linguistic self-citation, organizational self-citation, and national self-citation. In this study, unconventional self-citation of journals is considered, meaning the citation of articles published in a journal to previous works published in the same journal. Therefore, the research examines the impact of self-citation on the position of journals listed in JCR.ISC.

Method: This descriptive-analytical research has been conducted using a survey method. The research population includes all journals in six broad subject areas (social sciences, basic and engineering sciences, medical and health sciences, life sciences, arts and humanities, and multidisciplinary) available in the JCR.ISC system based on the latest assessment (2023) in the quantity of 1713 title. To collect the necessary data, the ISC Scientific Journals System was accessed, and after filtering by year, the list and relevant information for each journal were extracted. Subsequently, the impact of self-citation on journal rankings and its relationship with impact factor, quartile, and the number of journal articles were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the SPSS software.

Findings: In 2023, 1,713 journal titles achieved an impact factor. Of these, 21% are in the first quartile, 25% in the second quartile, 24% in the third quartile, and 30% in the fourth quartile. The highest impact factors belong to the "arts and humanities" and "social sciences" fields, while the lowest impact factor is in the "interdisciplinary" field. Overall, compared to the previous year, 896 journals improved their position, 588 journals decreased, and the rest remained unchanged. The average impact factor of all journals, including self-citation, was 0.229, which decreased to 0.153 after excluding self-citations. The journal quartile has a significant negative correlation with the percentage of self-citations at the 1% level. Additionally, the number of journal articles has a significant correlation with the number and percentage of self-citations at the 1% level. A comparison of the differences in impact factors of journals with and without self-citations in the six broad subject areas showed that the highest difference is related to journals in the social sciences and interdisciplinary groups, while the lowest difference is related to journals in the medical and health sciences and the arts and humanities fields.

Conclusion: Given the findings indicating a high average rate of self-citation in the examined journals, formulating a specific policy regarding the threshold of self-citation by the editorial board and efforts to reduce the self-citation rate and attract citations from other journals seem necessary. Additionally, raising awareness among researchers and journal stakeholders, alongside regular monitoring of journal citation performance, can prevent issues such as the potential suspension of journals from reputable databases. Attention to national policies to improve citation status, consideration of self-citation behavior, and qualitative enhancement of articles; conducting workshops for authors and journal staff to familiarize them with the correct principles of visibility and citation increase; active membership in scientific social networks; encouraging the submission of original articles are among the strategies for attracting citations. Furthermore, creating systems to detect and track unconventional self-citation using modern technologies such as data monitoring and analysis; setting strong ethical guidelines for publishing articles and mandatory follow-up and reporting of unconventional self-citation, utilizing other metrics and measures such as EigenFactor and SCI alongside the impact factor in the JCR.ISC system, and adhering to the conventional self-citation threshold by journals as one of the evaluation indicators in journal commissions at the ministries can positively impact the quality of research and, consequently, the position of the country's scientific journals.