To cite or not to cite: author self-citations and the impact factor

Author self-citations are another factor that affects the impact factor of a journal. Typically these self-citations are just counted as such. But to be more meaningful I suggest that when examining the contribution of authors’ self-citations to impact factors one should first count the number of citations in the text rather than in the reference list, and then discriminate between different kinds of author self-citations—from those that are informative to those that are self-enhancing—if these data are to be more credible.