A Note on Self-Citation

There were panels at APSA addressing gender in the profession, and one of the things that came up is that women tend not to cite themselves while men do.  The idea is that self-citation is cheezy/cheating, and that men are more likely to self-promote and do so.

I think there is a difference between legitimate and gratuitous self-citation.  Folks have been complaining about self-plagiarism--using material published by oneself in spot and re-using it elsewhere.  One way to avoid that is that if you have a coherent research agenda--articles/books relating to each other--is to cite the other work and not reproduce it.  So, self-citation may not only be legitimate much of the time (well, who knows how much is gratuitous) but a solution to a problem that people have been talking about.

anyhow, just a thought that is tertiary to the larger debate.