Brent Sams | Virginia Tech (original) (raw)

Papers by Brent Sams

Citation frequency is often used in hiring and tenure decisions as an indicator of the quality o... more Citation frequency is often used in hiring and tenure decisions as an indicator
of the quality of a researcher’s publications. In this paper, we examine the influence of
discipline, institution, journal impact factor, length of article, number of authors, seniority
of author, and gender on citation rate of top-cited papers for academic faculty in geography
and forestry departments. Self-citation practices and patterns of citation frequency across
post-publication lifespan were also examined. Citation rates of the most-highly cited paper
for all tenured forestry (N = 122) and geography (N = 91) faculty at Auburn University,
Michigan State University, Northern Arizona University, Oklahoma State University,
Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University, University of Florida, University
of Massachusetts, University of Washington, and Virginia Tech were compared. Foresters
received significantly more citations than geographers (t = 2.46, P = 0.02) and more
senior authors received more citations than junior researchers (r2 = 0.14, P = 0.03).
Articles published in journals with higher impact factors also received more citations
(r2 = 0.28, P = 0.00). The median self-citation rate was 10% and there was no temporal
pattern to the frequency of citations received by an individual article (x2 = 176). Our
results stress the importance of only comparing citation rates within a given discipline and
confirm the importance of author-seniority and journal rankings as factors that influence
citation rate of a given article.

Citation frequency is often used in hiring and tenure decisions as an indicator of the quality o... more Citation frequency is often used in hiring and tenure decisions as an indicator
of the quality of a researcher’s publications. In this paper, we examine the influence of
discipline, institution, journal impact factor, length of article, number of authors, seniority
of author, and gender on citation rate of top-cited papers for academic faculty in geography
and forestry departments. Self-citation practices and patterns of citation frequency across
post-publication lifespan were also examined. Citation rates of the most-highly cited paper
for all tenured forestry (N = 122) and geography (N = 91) faculty at Auburn University,
Michigan State University, Northern Arizona University, Oklahoma State University,
Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University, University of Florida, University
of Massachusetts, University of Washington, and Virginia Tech were compared. Foresters
received significantly more citations than geographers (t = 2.46, P = 0.02) and more
senior authors received more citations than junior researchers (r2 = 0.14, P = 0.03).
Articles published in journals with higher impact factors also received more citations
(r2 = 0.28, P = 0.00). The median self-citation rate was 10% and there was no temporal
pattern to the frequency of citations received by an individual article (x2 = 176). Our
results stress the importance of only comparing citation rates within a given discipline and
confirm the importance of author-seniority and journal rankings as factors that influence
citation rate of a given article.