Abstract
References are employed in most academic research papers to give credits and to reflect scholarliness. With the upsurge in academic publications in recent decades, we are curious to know how the number of references cited per research article has changed across different disciplines over that time. The results of our study showed significant linear growth in reference density in eight disciplinary categories between 1980 and 2019 indexed in Web of Science. It appears that reference saturation is not yet in sight. Overall, the general increase in the number of publications and the advanced accessibility of the Internet and digitized documents may have promoted the growth in references in certain fields. However, the seemingly runaway tendency should be well appreciated and objectively assessed. We suggest that authors focus on their research itself rather than on political considerations during the process of writing, especially the selection of important references to cite.
Highlights
Science is universally documented and communicated among researchers by means of papers published in academic journals
Journal Citation Reports (JCR), included in Web of Science maintained by Clarivate Analytics1, was used between July and October, 2020 to retrieve journal and reference information
A central theme of the results is that the number of references cited in research papers has been increasing, both per article and per page, over time frames of 17, 23, and 40 years, among the 30 selected disciplinary categories or the 80 journals of the selected categories in the natural and social sciences
Summary
Science is universally documented and communicated among researchers by means of papers published in academic journals. The most prominent difference between academic papers and their popular counterparts is, perhaps, the inclusion of references. The proper citation of references is considered to be the decent act of giving due credit to studies of theoretical foundations and important findings or disputes as to where certain information was retrieved from, all of which provide a solid academic background for the research in focus. The number of references cited is regarded as a marker of the “scholarliness” of articles and journals [1] because it represents the extent to which researchers depend upon and are indebted to the knowledge and discoveries of others. We suggest that the number of references cited in a paper implies the amount of time and energy spent in reviewing previous work during the process of conducting experiments, analysis, and writing.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
