publications Article Journals that Rise from the Fourth Quartile to the First Quartile in Six Years or Less: Mechanisms of Change and the Role of Journal Self-Citations Juan Miguel Campanario Departamento de Física y Matemáticas, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, 28871 Madrid, Spain; [email protected] Received: 6 September 2018; Accepted: 20 November 2018; Published: 26 November 2018 Abstract: Journal self-citations may be increased artificially to inflate a journal’s scientometric indicators. The aim of this study was to identify possible mechanisms of change in a cohort of journals that rose from the fourth (Q4) to the first quartile (Q1) over six years or less in Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and the role of journal self-citations in these changes. A total of 51 different journals sampled from all JCR Science Citation Index (SCI) subject categories improved their rank position from Q4 in 2009 to Q1 in any year from 2010 to 2015. I identified changes in the numerator or denominator of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) that were involved in each year-to-year transition. The main mechanism of change was the increase in the number of citations used to compute the JIF. The effect of journal self-citations in the increase of the JIF was studied. The main conclusion is that there was no evidence of widespread JIF manipulation through the overuse of journal self-citations. Keywords: journal rankings; web of science categories; journal impact factor; journal self-citations 1. Introduction and Objectives Different criteria are used to evaluate and rank academic journals. Perhaps the most frequently used citation-based ranking is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), introduced by Eugene Garfield and first published in 1975 by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI), then by Thomson Reuters, and currently by Clarivate Analytics as part of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) [1,2]. The JIF of a given journal for year Y is calculated according to the following equation [3]: Citations_in_Y_to_documents_published_in_Y1_and_Y2 JIF(Y) = . (1) Citable_items_published_in_Y1_and_Y2 In Equation (1), Y1 and Y2 are the two years before Y. The “citable items” include only articles and reviews. However, other documents can be cited and they are often cited [4]. Journal rankings of specific research fields are often used for evaluation purposes, both of authors and institutions [5]. The use of reference sets based on Web of Science subject categories became an established practice in evaluative bibliometrics [6]. Many years ago, ISI created subject categories for JCR; these categories were assigned by ISI staff on the basis of a number of criteria including the journal’s title and its citation patterns [7,8]. Many journals appear in more than one category [9]. For a journal editor, increasing a journal’s impact factor may be an important objective [10]. Journal editors often publish editorials and letters in which they explain that one of their main goals is to maintain or improve their JIF or their journal’s rank position in JCR [11,12]. Actually, they can even publish editorials and commissioned opinion articles that cause these increases [13]. In some countries (for example, Spain), academics are awarded economic bonuses for publishing in prestigious journals, especially those ranked highly in their JCR categories [14,15]. Similarly, many Publications 2018, 6, 47; doi:10.3390/publications6040047 www.mdpi.com/journal/publications Publications 2018, 6, 47 2 of 15 Chinese universities pay monetary rewards to staff members who publish Science Citation Index (SCI) articles in journals with a high JIF [16]. Competition to publish in highly ranked journals can be fierce and, as a consequence, journals actively try to increase their rank position. Paji´cstudied the stability of seven citation-based journal rankings [17], and discovered that many journals moved from one quartile to another. The plots he published illustrated instances of changes from Q4 to Q1 from one year to the next. Percentiles are frequently used in journal ranking systems. Currently, many journals remain in the same JCR quartile for years, or move up only in small, single-quartile steps. This makes journals that experience relatively fast transitions from low to high rank positions a strategic research objective. 1.1. Journal Self-Citations and the JIF According Bornmann and Haunschild, “citations are a target-oriented metric which measures impact on science” ([18], p. 230). Many comments and letters were published on the topic of author and journal self-citation. For example, authors complained that self-citations may be increased artificially to inflate a journal’s scientometric indicators [19–26]. However, as noted by Frandsen, little evidence exists that relates self-citations to the JIF [27]. Rousseau suggested that a high self-citation rate may be an expression of low journal visibility [28]. Peritz and Bar-Ilan studied the fields of bibliometrics and scientometrics, and discovered an increase in journal self-citation [29]. Mirsaeid, Motamedi, and Ghorbani selected 12 Iranian medical journals included in Web of Science and 26 Iranian medical journals included in ISC (Islamic World Science Citation Center), and studied the correlation between self-citation and JIF. These authors found that there was no significant difference between self-citation rates in these two databases. In addition, they found no significant differences between these two databases in the correlation of journal self-citation with impact factor [30]. Yang, Gao, and Zhang compared the journal self-citation rates for 99 Chinese scientific journals, and then compared the results with a similar set of 99 non-Chinese journals. They found that, in general, self-citation rates were higher in Chinese journals [31]. Humphrey, Kiseleva, and Schleicher studied the self-citation trends over the period of 2000–2012 for all business and management journals indexed in JCR. In some instances, they found strong increases in self-citation relative to external citations [32]. Lin studied the performance of Asian science and technology (S&T) journals in international citation indicators. She found that journal self-citations among the studied journals had no significant effect on the journals’ JIF values [33]. Hongling investigated the self-citation rates from 2007 to 2009 in journals from China, Japan, India, and Korea included in the SCI. She found that Korea had the highest self-citation rate, and Japan the lowest. She also discovered that the academic influence of journals with very low or very high self-citation rates was small [34]. Huang and Lin studied the influence of journal self-citations on the JIF and journal immediacy index (JII) [35]. They used data for 10 years of publications from 20 journals in environmental engineering, and found that the inclusion of journal self-citations only slightly modified the JIF and JII values. Mimouni et al. investigated the self-citation rate of 117 pediatrics journals listed in the JCR. They discovered that there was a significant difference between JIF and corrected JIF (without self-citations) among all journals. They also found that self-citation was more prevalent in journals with a lower JIF and with a lower corrected JIF [36]. Torabian et al. studied the relationship between self-citation and JIF in open-access medical science journals indexed by ISI and Directory of Open-Access Journals (DOAJ) in 2007–2008. They found that, after deleting self-citations, 60% of the journals increased in rank, 27% decreased in rank, and 13% remained unchanged. They also found a significant relationship between self-citation and JIF [37]. Publications 2018, 6, 47 3 of 15 Opthof studied the top 50 journals listed in the Web of Science category of cardiac and cardiovascular systems [38]. He studied inflation of the impact factor due to journal self-citation, and concluded that that journal self-citation among cardiovascular journals was substantial. As noted above, a simple technique to increase the JIF consists of publishing editorial material with many journal self-citations [39]. However, in previous studies, we found that manipulation of the JIF by publishing large amounts of editorial material with many citations to the journal itself was not a widely used strategy [40]. In another study, we tried ascertaining the possible effect of journal self-citations on the increase in the JIF of journals for which this scientometric indicator rose at least fourfold in only a few years. Again, we found no evidence of widespread manipulation of the JIF through the massive use of journal self-citations [41]. In another article, I studied the factors (citations, self-citations, and number of articles) that led to large changes in the JIF in only one year in a sample of 360 journals. I discovered that about 54% of the increases in the JIF were associated with changes in journal self-citation patterns [42]. Yang et al. used data mining techniques to detect JIF manipulation [43]. These authors used eight algorithms to find suitable methods for detecting impact factor manipulation. Note that, in general, the effect of added citations on the JIF will be more noticeable for journals ranked in lower positions. These journals have low JIFs and, thus, benefit more obviously from any additional citations they receive. 1.2. Coercive Citations The concept of mandatory or coercive self-citation is not new. This refers to “requests that (i) give no indication that the manuscript was lacking in attribution; (ii) make no suggestion as to specific articles, authors, or a body of work requiring review; and (iii) only guide authors to add citations from the editor’s journal” ([44], p. 542). Resnik, Gutierrez-Ford, and Peddala provide another definition of coercive citations: “unnecessary references to his/her publication(s)” ([45], p. 307). Coercitive citations could also be used for personal editors’ benefit [46]. Esfe et al. discussed the types, reasons, benefits, and drawbacks of this type of self-citation [47].