Self-Citation Policy for Authors

       1.Preface

The Journal is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, scientific objectivity, and research integrity. This policy outlines the principles governing the responsible use of self-citation by authors, reviewers, and editors. It aims to ensure that all citations serve a genuine academic purpose and that journal and author metrics reflect strong scholarly impact.

2. Definition

Self-citation means the practice of citing one’s own previously published work (author self-citation) or citing articles previously published in the same journal (journal self-citation). A reference is considered an author self-citation if any co-author of the submitted manuscript is also an author of the cited work.

3. Types of Self-Citation

• Legitimate Self-Citation: Citations that are scientifically relevant and necessary to support the current research, provide essential background, or build directly upon previous findings.
• Excessive or Inappropriate Self-Citation: Refers to citations made without clear academic relevance, intended primarily to inflate author citation counts or journal impact metrics artificially.

4. Journal Policy

• Author Limits: The proportion of author self-citations in any submitted manuscript should not exceed

     4%  of the total references, unless clearly scientifically justified.

• Editorial Integrity: Editors and reviewers must never request or pressure authors to add citations to their own work or to the journal unless such citations are strictly relevant and scientifically necessary to the content of the manuscript
• Monitoring and Enforcement: The journal reserves the right to analyze and monitor self-citation rates using indexing and detection tools (e.g., Crossref, Scopus, or similar). Manuscripts found to contain excessive or unjustified self-citations may be returned for revision, or in severe cases, rejected.
• Journal-Level Monitoring: The editorial team regularly monitors overall journal self-citation rates to ensure they remain well within acceptable international indexing standards

5. Author Responsibilities

Authors must ensure that all citations in their manuscript are directly relevant and serve a genuine academic purpose. Self-citations should be used only when necessary for research continuity or clarification of previous methods and findings. Authors are expected to comply with recognized standards of research integrity, including the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Elsevier Publishing Ethics.

6. Implementation and Review

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to the journal from the date of adoption. It will be reviewed periodically and updated as needed to align with evolving best practices in scholarly publishing.