Author self-citations in the urology literature

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the diachronous self-citation rate and the various article characteristics which can influence the rate and percentage of diachronous author self-citations using papers published in high-rank urology journals. METHODS: We included all papers (N = 327 articles) published between January 2015 to April 2015 in the European Urology, The Journal of Urology and the BJU International. We determined author self-citations using the Scopus database and used negative binomial regression to determine which article characteristics affect self-citations. RESULTS: 262 articles (80.2%) contained at least one self-citation.The mean number and percentage of author self-citations were 6.5 and 14.2 respectively. Adjusted analysis showed that the experimental/animal study design and the number of authors were significantly associated with both the number (IRR = 2.12, P = 0.011; IRR = 1.03, P = 0.002) and percentage of author self-citations (IRR = 2.95, P = 0.003; IRR = 1.03, P = 0.012). The number of citations in the Scopus and publication in European Urology were significantly associated with only the number of author self-citations. CONCLUSION: Diachronous author self-citation rate in urology is higher compared to general medical literature but similar to other surgical subspecialties. It may depend on the study design and the number of authors in the paper. For a more comprehensive evaluation, future studies should look at the context in which self-citations were made.