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.
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.
Dusansky, R., Schubert, C. J. (1998), Rankings of US economics departments. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12: 157–170.
Ellison, G. (2002), The slowdown of the economics publication process. Journal of Political Economy, 110: 947–993.
Frandsen, T. F. (2005), Geographical concentration: The case of economics journals. Scientometrics, 63: 69–85.
Hodgson, G. M., Rothman, H. (1999), The editors and authors of economics journals: A case of institutional oligopoly? Economic Journal, 109: 165–186.
Hudson, J. (1996), Trends in multi-authored papers in economics. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10: 153–158.
Laband, D. N., Piette, M. J. (1994), The relative impact of economics journals. Journal of Economic Literature, 32: 640–666.
Laband, D. N., Tollison, R. D., Karahan, G. (2002), Quality control in economics. Kyklos, 55: 315–334.
Medoff, M. H. (2003), Collaboration and the quality of economics research. Labour Economics, 10: 597–608.
Rousseau, R. (2002), Journal evaluation, technical and practical issues. Library Trends, 50: 418–439.
Scott, L. C., Mitias, P. M. (1996), Trends of rankings of economics departments in the U.S.: An update. Economic Inquiry, 34: 378–400.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights 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
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1671-6