Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Be known by the company you keep: Citations — quality or chance?

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We examine the determinants of five year citations to papers published in the American Economic Review and the Economic Journal. Citations are positively related to page length and position in the journal. Both of these variables are consistent with the hypothesis that citations reflect paper quality, as is the number of subsequent self-citations. However, the publication of a major paper, as judged by subsequent citations, significantly increases the citations of other papers in an issue and this indicates the importance of chance in determining citations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Coupe, T. (2003), Revealed preferences: World rankings of economists and economic departments: 1900–2000. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1: 1309–1345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dusansky, R., Schubert, C. J. (1998), Rankings of US economics departments. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12: 157–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellison, G. (2002), The slowdown of the economics publication process. Journal of Political Economy, 110: 947–993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frandsen, T. F. (2005), Geographical concentration: The case of economics journals. Scientometrics, 63: 69–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodgson, G. M., Rothman, H. (1999), The editors and authors of economics journals: A case of institutional oligopoly? Economic Journal, 109: 165–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, J. (1996), Trends in multi-authored papers in economics. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10: 153–158.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Laband, D. N., Piette, M. J. (1994), The relative impact of economics journals. Journal of Economic Literature, 32: 640–666.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laband, D. N., Tollison, R. D., Karahan, G. (2002), Quality control in economics. Kyklos, 55: 315–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medoff, M. H. (2003), Collaboration and the quality of economics research. Labour Economics, 10: 597–608.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, R. (2002), Journal evaluation, technical and practical issues. Library Trends, 50: 418–439.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, L. C., Mitias, P. M. (1996), Trends of rankings of economics departments in the U.S.: An update. Economic Inquiry, 34: 378–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Bath, BA2 7AY, Bath, UK

    John Hudson

Authors
  1. John Hudson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Hudson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hudson, J. Be known by the company you keep: Citations — quality or chance?. Scientometrics 71, 231–238 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1671-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1671-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation