Self-citation and citation of top journal publishers and their interpretation in the journal-discipline context

The increasing influence of publishers on academic publishing has inevitably promoted studies of publisher citation and self-citation. However, in this type of citation analysis, it is difficult to integrate size dependence and independence among multiple citations and citing articles. We conducted a comprehensive and global study on citation and self-citation at the publisher level and examine the determinants of their different components. Obvious skewness exists in self-citation and citation of the top 20 journal publishers in essential science indicators. Publisher citation significantly correlates with publisher self-citation (PSC) excluding journal self-citation (JSC). Regarding the top 20 journal publishers, we reveal dependency relations of various citations from self-citation to citation and between intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary. JSC integrates with proportion (number), discipline and topic profiles of publisher's articles and number of publisher's journals to influence PSC excluding JSC. After exceeding an inflection point related to the JSC rate, the increase in the proportion of articles will become positive for intradisciplinary PSC excluding JSC. Namely, when the JSC rate of a publisher exceeds a value related to its proportion of articles, the increase in its JSC will decrease its intradisciplinary PSC excluding JSC. The increase in the unevenness of the discipline profile of articles can decrease the value of the inflection point and strengthen the effectiveness of the proportion of articles after exceeding the inflection point. In contrast, the increase in the unevenness of the topic profile of articles can increase intradisciplinary PSC excluding JSC regardless of the number of articles. Interdisciplinary PSC is mainly determined by the number of articles. The decrease in the number of journals, from the top 10 to the top 11-20 journal publishers, increases the self-citations in transition statuses between intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary by strengthening the effectiveness of JSC and the number of articles. The topic profile of articles can also directly influence non-self-citation.