Self-Citation Does Not Appear to Artificially Inflate Orthopaedic Journal Ranking

Until recently the impact factor has been considered the tool of choice among the many available for evaluating the relative prestige of journals. However, the inclusion of self-citations in its calculation has led some to question its validity. The SCImago Journal Rank is a relatively new rating system that excludes self-citation. This study analyzed the top 30 orthopaedic journals to determine which journals had higher self-citation rates and if those rates had any correlation with their impact factors and SCImago Journal Ranks. The study verified that self-citing was more common in specialty journals compared with general orthopaedic journals (p D .002). The results demonstrate a more positive correlation between self-citation and SCImago Journal Rank than impact factor. This finding suggests that the impact factor’s inclusion of self-citations should not be thought to artificially inflate the impact factor of the subspecialty journals that most commonly cite their own work. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 27(2):131–135, 2018)
Key words: impact factor, orthopaedics, SCImago Journal Rank, self-citation