Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery - Addressing Article Self-Citation

Excessive self-citation impacts everyone within the field of research publishing. When authors repeatedly and needlessly cite their own previously-published work—thereby attempting to inflate their own citation counts for their own personal gain—they undermine trust in the publishing process and lessen the true worth of all citations. 

Against this backdrop, the editorial leadership of Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery seeks to alleviate this issue within our own publications. Below please find details on the new measures we have implemented in order to combat excessive self-citation.

Maximum Allowable Self-Citations 

Below please find the most recent amendment to our Submission Guidelines (this opens in a new tab) regarding this ongoing issue. Please keep note of it if you plan to submit to the journal in the future.

Excessive self-citation is strongly discouraged. Authors may reference their own previously-published work a maximum of five times (or no more than 20% of total citations) within any submitted manuscript. 

If there are extraneous circumstances that require your manuscript to exceed these guidelines, please provide an explanation for this in your cover letter during the submission process. If these values are exceeded and no convincing justification is provided, the manuscript will be rejected. 

Authorship in Reference Lists

As per Springer submission guidelines, the authorship of cited articles may be abbreviated in reference lists by substituting complete lists of author first and last names with the shorthand "et al." 

However, upon request by a member of the Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery Editorial team, authors must provide the complete, non-abbreviated authorship of all papers referenced by their submission to ensure that their article is within the acceptable limits of self-citation, as defined above.