A probe into causes of non

Empirical analysis results concerning the possible causes of non-citation may help increase the potential of researchers’ work to be cited. After complete literature retrieval from the Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus databases, we find that very few studies focus on the empirical analysis of causes of non-citation. In this article, we conduct a survey of the possible causes for citation or non-citation based on a questionnaire. We then perform a statistical analysis to identify the major causes of non-citation in combination with the analysis of the data collected through the survey. Most respondents to our questionnaire identified seven major points (‘research hotspots and novel topics of content’, ‘research topics similar to my work’, ‘high quality of content’, ‘reasonable self-citation’, ‘highlighted title’, ‘prestigious authors’, and ‘academic tastes and interests similar to mine’) that facilitate easy citation of one’s papers. They also pointed out that the vast difference between their current and former research directions is the primary reason for their previously uncited papers. They feel that texts that include notes, comments and letters to editors are rarely cited, and the same is true for papers that are too short or too lengthy. In comparison, it is easier for reviews, articles, or papers of intermediate length to be cited