Trends in self-citation rates in high-impact neurology, neuroscience, and psychiatry journals

Citation metrics influence academic reputation and career trajectories. Recent works have highlighted flaws in citation practices in the Neurosciences, such as the under-citation of women. However, self-citation rates—or how much authors cite themselves—have not yet been comprehensively investigated in the Neurosciences. This work characterizes self-citation rates in basic, translational, and clinical Neuroscience literature by collating 100,347 articles from 63 journals between the years 2000–2020. In analyzing over five million citations, we demonstrate four key findings: (1) increasing self-citation rates of Last Authors relative to First Authors, (2) lower self-citation rates in low- and middle-income countries, (3) gender differences in self-citation stemming from differences in the number of previously published papers, and (4) variations in self-citation rates by field. Our characterization of self-citation provides insight into citation practices that shape the perceived influence of authors in the Neurosciences, which in turn may impact what type of scientific research is done and who gets the opportunity to do it.