Invisible Publications: A Study of Academic Productivity in the Web of Science Database

Abstract

The present study aims to outline the profile of uncited or rarely cited articles indexed in the Web of Science database between 2017 and 2021. We used stratified random sampling of 14,425 journals to extract our study sample of 373 journals. The dependent variable was defined as the number of citations, with independent variables being the JCR index, maturity, quartile, language of publication, and whether the research was funded. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample according to field of research and variable. A negative binomial regression method was used to estimate which variables influence the number of citations received by articles in the sample. We found that of the 256,524 articles that make up the research corpus, 39,469 (15.39%) received no citations and 91,963 articles (35.85%) received up to four citations. The variables that positively influenced estimates of the number of citations were maturity (0.481), JCR index (0.159), and funding (0.020), while quartile (-0.170) and language (-1.032) had a negative influence on number of citations. We conclude that the pressures of academic productivism create a vicious cycle in which studies are referenced based on their ranking in the struggle for privileged editorial space, with articles in higher quartile journals being more prone to citation.