Publication boost in Web of Science journals and its effect on citation distributions

TL;DR

This study examines how the surge in publications within Web of Science journals influences citation distribution patterns, revealing that increased publication volume affects citation metrics but not scientists' citation behaviors.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the growth in physics publications is due to more articles per journal rather than new journals, and analyzes how this affects citation distributions over time.

Findings

Growth in physics articles is due to more papers per journal.

Newer papers are cited more frequently despite longer reference lists.

Citation behavior of scientists remains unchanged.

Abstract

In this paper we show that the dramatic increase in the number of research articles indexed in the Web of Science database impacts the commonly observed distributions of citations within these articles. First, we document that the growing number of physics articles in recent years is due to existing journals publishing more and more papers rather than more new journals coming into being as it happens in computer science. And second, even though the references from the more recent papers generally cover a longer time span, the newer papers are cited more frequently than the older ones if the uneven paper growth is not corrected for. Nevertheless, despite this change in the distribution of citations, the citation behavior of scientists does not seem to have changed.