Journal Impact Factor Without Self Cites

Journal Impact Factor Without Self Cites

The Journal Impact Factor Without Self Cites is the same as Journal Impact Factor, but with one important exception. Any citations to a publication that come from the publication itself (i.e., self-cites) are excluded from the publication’s Journal Impact Factor w/out self-cites numerator.

The calculation is identical to the Journal Impact Factor in that the numerator is formed by the citations in the JCR year to items in "year - 2" + citations JCR year to items in "year -1" divided by citable items from the same years, but excluding self-citations. 

This metric demonstrates the citations-per-item ratio where self-cites are excluded. This provides a publication-level metric where that publication’s direct influence on the metric has been removed. It highlights (at the expense of holistic measurement) the citation patterns toward a publication by its neighbors or peers.

Self-citation patterns vary considerably by publication and by subject category. For publications that are associated with a relatively small category (i.e., a domain of research where there are relatively few journals), relatively higher citation rates may be expected, because the domain’s entire body of research will necessarily be concentrated in relatively few publications. Self-citation is not a “bad” thing. but simply one of several metrics that provide data and context for publication-level evaluation.