Coauthorship and citation in scientific publishing

TL;DR

This study analyzes a comprehensive coauthorship and citation network in physics to understand how authors cite themselves and their collaborators, revealing patterns of preferential citation and collaboration over time.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid coauthorship/citation network analysis combining two types of networks over a century of physics papers, providing new insights into author behaviors.

Findings

Authors cite themselves or collaborators more than others.

Self and collaborator citations occur more quickly after publication.

Scientists tend to reciprocate citations, indicating preferential citation behaviors.

Abstract

A large number of published studies have examined the properties of either networks of citation among scientific papers or networks of coauthorship among scientists. Here, using an extensive data set covering more than a century of physics papers published in the Physical Review, we study a hybrid coauthorship/citation network that combines the two, which we analyze to gain insight into the correlations and interactions between authorship and citation. Among other things, we investigate the extent to which individuals tend to cite themselves or their collaborators more than others, the extent to which they cite themselves or their collaborators more quickly after publication, and the extent to which they tend to return the favor of a citation from another scientist.