To What Extent Are Highly Cited Papers Influenced by Author Self-citation? A Comparison between Iran and Turkey

Highly cited papers are mostly authored in international collaboration. It is expected that co-authored papers bring more citations. On the other hand, it is inevitable that a part of citations is self-citation. This study investigates 134 and 236 highly cited papers in Iran and Turkey, respectively, to determine the extent to which highly cited papers are affected by author self-citation. A comparison accross subject disciplines shows that highly cited papers in Clinical Medicine (in Turky) and Physics (in Iran) received more citations than others while Engineering stands at the top position based on author self-citation counts in both countries. There is a significant relashionship between Iranian nationally co-authored papers and author self-citation. But it is not true of Turkish researchers. This indicates that Iranian contributors have more tendency toward author self-citation than Turkish researchers. Consequently, the influence of author self-citation on highly cited papers is to some extent a matter of citation behavior.