Use of Journal Citation Reports for Serials Management in Research Libraries: An Investigation of the Effect of Self-Citation on Journal Rankings in Library and Information Science and Genetics

Abstract

This article explores the use of the Institute for Scientific Information’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR) for journal management in academic libraries. The advantages and disadvantages to using JCR citation data for journal management are outlined, and a literature review summa- rizes reported uses of these data by libraries and scholars. This study researches the impact of journal self-citation on JCR rankings of library and information science (LIS) and genetics journals. The 1994 rankings by impact factor and total citations received were recalculated with jour- nal self-citations removed; then the recalculated rankings were com- pared to the original rankings to analyze the effect of self-citations. It is concluded that librarians can use JCR data without correcting for jour- nal self-citation, although self-citations do exert a major effect on the rankings for a small number of journals.