title: Self-citation rate and impact factor in ophthalmology.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the self-citation rate (SCR) of ophthalmology journals, determine its possible effect on a journal's impact factor (IF) and compare the SCR of subspecialty journals versus general ophthalmology journals.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective consecutive study of ophthalmology journals listed in the Journal Citations Report (JCR) 2013. We retrieved these parameters from each journal's report: IF, total citations, self-citations, SCR and IF without self-citations (corrected IF).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant correlation was detected between the number of self-citations and publications (R(2) = 86.3, p = 0.000). Subspecialty journals had a significantly higher SCR than general journals (p = 0.017). No significant difference was found in terms of IF and corrected IF between general and subspecialty journals (p = 0.260 and p = 0.108, respectively). No significant correlation between IF and SCR was detected (p = 0.099). The corrected IF was inversely correlated with SCR (R(2) = -32.6, p = 0.013). An inverse correlation was detected between SCR and IF in the 29 ophthalmology journals with the lowest IF (R(2) = -57.3, p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Unlike other fields of medicine, the IF of an ophthalmology journal does not correlate with its SCR. Self-citation is found more often in journals with a low corrected IF and is inversely correlated with IF in the bottom half.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, and Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mimouni
authors.forename: Ori
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Segal
mesh_terms: D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*