In a recent Times Higher Education article, David Watkins discusses the concerns surrounding excessive self-citations, arguing that not all self-citations are created equal. While some authors may exploit self-citations for personal gain, Watkins contends that an outright ban of these types of citations is not the solution. He highlights that widely published, influential scholars—including Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Niels Bohr—often have higher self-citation rates due to their groundbreaking work. To address misuse, Watkins explains how Times Higher Education employs a “Research Influence” metric that evaluates the broader impact of a paper’s citations, identifies influential research, and filters out papers that lack influence in their fields to help maintain integrity in academic publishing.
