PHD Discussions Logo

Ask, Learn and Accelerate in your PhD Research

Question Icon Post Your Answer

Question Icon

2 years ago in Bibliometrics By Renu

Is it unethical to cite my own previous work excessively to boost my citation metrics?

I'm writing a paper that builds directly on my three prior studies. Naturally, I'll cite them. But if I do this often across papers, am I unethically inflating my own citation count? Where is the line between necessary self-citation and metric gaming?

All Answers (1 Answers In All)

By Bindya Answered 1 year ago

The ethical line is drawn by relevance and necessity. Cite your prior work when it provides essential foundational context, methods, or data that the reader needs to understand the current paper. This is legitimate scholarly continuity. Unethical self-citation involves adding gratuitious references to your own papers that are tangential or irrelevant, solely to inflate counts. Databases like Scopus now flag "self-citation rates" much higher than the field average. A good practice: for each self-citation, ask "If this paper were written by another author, would I still cite this source here?" If yes, it's justified. Building a coherent research program naturally involves self-citation, but your primary goal should be clarity and scholarly honesty, not metric optimization. Committees can spot manipulative patterns.

Your Answer