The More Publication, the Higher Impact Factor: Citation Analysis of Top Nine Gastroenterology and Hepatology Journals

Background: the impact factor (if), as the most important criterion for journal’s quality measurement, is affected by the self-citation and number of publications in each journal. objectives: to find out the relationship between the number of publications and selfcitations in a journal, and their correlations with if. materials and methods: self-citations and impact factors of nine top gastroenterology and hepatology journals were assessed during the seven recent years (2005-2011) through journal citation reports (jcr, isi thomson reuters). results: although impact factors of all journals increased during the study, five out of nine journals increased the number of publications from 2005 to 2011. there was an increase in self-citation only in the journal of hepatology (499 in 2005 vs. 707 in 2011). impact factors of journals (6.5 ± 3.5) were positively correlated with total number of publications (248.6 ± 91.7) (r: 0.688, p < 0.001). besides, the self-citation rate (238.73 ± 195.317) was highly correlated with total number of publications in each journal (248.6 ± 91.7) (r: 0.861, p < 0.001). on the other hand, impact factor without self-citation (6.08 ± 3.3) had a correlation (r: 0.672, p < 0.001) with the number of published items (248.6 ± 91.7). conclusions: the number of articles and self-citation have definite effects on if of a journal and because if is the most prominent criterion for journal’s quality measurement, it would be a good idea to consider factors affecting on if such as self-citation.