Correlation between Self - Citation and Impact Factor in Persian Journal Citation Report's Medical Journals

It is obvious that self - citation is a part of all citations, but high self - citation rate brings high journal rank and introduce the author as the highly cited author. The purpose this study was to recognize both journal self - citation and author self - citation and find their correlation with impact factor. Citation analysis was used to conduct the survey. The population includes 34 Persian Journal Citation Report's medical journals with impact factor. Since the study examined journals impact factors in 2005, the citations in 2005 to articles published in 2003 and 2004 were considered and number of self - citations was determined. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and Correlation test. 85% of medical journals publish with 61% self - citation rate. Comparing journal performance, before and after omitting self - citation, it was found that the rank of 6.9% journals descended and the impact factor of 58.6% journals became zero meanwhile the rank of 34.5% journals improved. There was a significant correlation between impact factor and self - citation rate (P = 0.01, r = 0.508). Pearson Correlation Coefficient demonstrated a relationship between impact factor and journal self - citation and author self - citation. There was no significant correlation between impact factor and adjusted impact factor with number of articles. Journals with low impact factor have lower self - citation. It means that self- citation has positive influence on impact factor. With regard to highly used of self - citation (61.5%) and changing of 58% journal's impact factor to zero, the number of self - citation should decrease in medical journals. At this case the journals will obtain their right rank. Consequently, with the increase of self - citation the editorials must change their article submission policy.