Publication Month Bias Evolution Patterns of Highly Cited Papers in Different Disciplines

Pan Zhang, Sijie Han, Zhiqiang Cai

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The publication date and chronological arrangement lead to early published papers having more time and opportunity to be read and cited compared with the later publication papers. To explore the publication month bias phenomenon of highly cited papers published in different disciplines, we selected highly cited papers from all ESI disciplines published between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2020. The results indicate that the 'head-start' effect of highly cited papers is a widespread phenomenon in all ESI disciplines, and the probability published in each month decreases linearly with the increase of months. We adopt the Least square method to quantify the month bias degree in each ESI discipline and all fitting curves are significant under the test level $\alpha=0.01$ except Multidisciplinary. We also discover that the shorter the citation window length, the more obvious the 'head-start' effect, and it cannot be removed even if the citation window length of up to 11 years.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2021 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, IEEM 2021
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1062-1066
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781665437714
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event2021 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, IEEM 2021 - Virtual, Online, Singapore
Duration: 13 Dec 202116 Dec 2021

Publication series

Name2021 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, IEEM 2021

Conference

Conference2021 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, IEEM 2021
Country/TerritorySingapore
CityVirtual, Online
Period13/12/2116/12/21

Keywords

  • Citation window length
  • Highly cited papers
  • Least square method
  • Month bias
  • Publication date

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