Journal Self-Citation IV: Citations Analysis of IS Journals – Separating Facts from Fiction

This article is inspired by a recent posting on the AISWorld listserv eliciting thoughts on the practice of self-citations by journals in the IS field. While emotions ran high in the ensuing online discussion, we try to provide an objective and informed analysis of the actual citation patterns of both top tier journals and non-top tier journals. Results show that the practice of self-citation is fairly common among both types of journals. Additional analyses showed that the preference for top-tier citations was more prevalent in top-tier journals than in non-top-tier journals. Supported by the data, we provide several arguments for these practices