SELF CITATION LETTER VOLUME 1, Issue 1.
Self Consistent Citation Analysis of
Nelson Tansu
Nelson Tansu, Member, IEEE Self Citation
Abstract— Self-citation, where an author cite his own works,
account for a significant portion of total citations in the field. Self
citation or self referencing can be a result of an author’s social
and psychological needs for personal gratification. It is used as a
tactical tool to get famous, in the struggle for visibility and
scientific authority. This paper provides a self consistent citation
analysis on a famous self-proclaimed youngest professor in the
history from Medan. The analysis reveals the author has a high
self citation, able to cite himself 10 to 40 times in a publication.
The activity of self citation is more than 50% of the number of
citations he received. This is consistent self citation.
Index Terms— Optoelectronics; Semiconductor Properties;
Semiconductor Diode Lasers; Metalorganic chemical Vapor
Deposition; Quantum Wells; III/V compound semiconductor
materials.
I. INTRODUCTION
A self-citation is a reference an author provide in a
document to other documents written by himself. Self-
citation, where an author cite his own works, account for a
significant portion of all citations. The so called self-citation
allows an author to present work to relate as a way to discuss
previous findings. However it can be manipulated to present
the author as an expert in the area. An author uses self-citation
as a way to increase one’s citation volume and purposefully
ignore other people’s work. Self citation or self referencing
can be a result from the cumulative nature of individual
research, and the need for personal gratification. The value of
self-citation is used a rhetorical and tactical tool in the struggle
for visibility and to become famous [1]. Author self citation
can reveal the social behavior of the author. Self-citation is a
form of academic egotism, selfishness and self-centeredness
[2].
So called self citation is a strategy for emphasizing a
researcher’s contribution to a piece of research and
strengthening his or her knowledge claims, research
credibility, and wider standing in the discipline. It is used for
the promotional strategies of the individual [3].
Self-citation is a useful component of a scientific
Manuscript received April 9, 2011. This work was supported in part by the
World Department of Self Citation under Grant BS Tansu.
N. Tansu is with the National Institute of Self Citation.
publication, considering the increasing number of citation
impact statistics, an author deliberately cites himself to
increase his citation volume. This problem is becoming more
critical as the purpose of self citation need to be discovered.
Self consistent citation analysis is a new way of finding out if
an author consistently cites himself to increase his citation
volume and h-index.
Nelson Tansu made claims that he is the youngest professor
in the US history. He also listed having more than 200
publications and more than 1200 citations. This research found
out whether the publication of Nelson Tansu is really
important, have a high impact, or is this really just because of
high self citation. The so called self consistent citation analysis
is performed rigorously.
This paper is intended for a conference, to discuss the
important finding of self citation on the career of Nelson
Tansu. The finding will inform the trick and strategy on to get
so called famous in the scientific world.
II. METHODOLOGY
The research was conducted in the OSU Science and
Engineering Library, Columbus OH, during Spring 2011. A
database search of “Nelson Tansu” publication and citation is
done on Scopus. Scopus is a database of abstracts and citations
for scholarly journal articles. Scopus also offers author profiles
which cover affiliations, number of publications and their
bibliographic data, references and details on the number of
citations each published document has received. A self
consistent citation analysis is performed.
The author “Tansu N” was identified as the right author at
the right affiliation. The number of publications and their
references and details on the number of citations each
published document was retrieved from year 2000 to 2011. In
addition, the number of citations that is without self citation
was recorded.
SELF CITATION LETTER VOLUME 1, Issue 1.
No. publication
30
25
20
15
10
5
0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Fig. 1 The number of publications by Nelson Tansu.
III. NUMBER OF PUBLICATIONS
The total number of publications for author Nelson Tansu
recorded in Scopus up to Spring 2011 is 153. Fig. 1. Tansu
showed the publication each year since 1999. Tansu had start
publishing since 1999 from his PhD at University of
Wisconsin, Madison. His publication increased until year
2005, but dropped in 2006 and 2007. Since 2008, it jumps
suddenly until 2010, with more than 20 publications per year.
IV. NUMBER OF SELF CITATIONS
The total number of citation recorded by Scopus for all of
Tansu publication up to Spring 2011 is 1253. The recorded h
index is 20, which means of the 153 documents considered, 20
have been cited at least 20 times.
In Scopus, there is an option to exclude from citation
overview “Self citations of all authors”. This is done for the
Tansu’s record. the result of total number of citation by other
people (without self citation) is 601. The 601 citations come
from 401 other publications, meaning that normally other
people just cite Tansu’s publication on average 1 to 2 times in
a publication. The h index is just 13, which means of the 153
documents considered, 20 have been cited at least 20 times.
2
300
Total citation
Without self citation
250
Self citation
200
150
100
50
0
Year
Fig. 2 The number of citations received by Tansu’s
publication every year since 2000. The blue line is the total
number of citation received. The red line is the number of
citation received excluding any self citation by the author. The
green line is the number of self citation by Tansu.
This means that of all of total 1253 citation, 652 citation is
self referencing or self citation. This means 52% of the citation
is not the recognition by another people, but a result of self
citation. The action of self citation results in increase h index
for Tansu. The real h index is just 13, but with self citation
jumps to 20. This strategy of self citation is to increase h index
of the author.
Fig. 2 showed the number of citations to Tansu publication
each year from year 2000, when he still doing his PhD at
University of Wisconsin. The blue line is the total number of
citation Tansu received for all of his publications every year.
The red line is the number of citation Tansu received from
researchers other than his own publication. The red line is the
real indicator of how important is Tansu work. If Tansu
publication is important, many other researchers will give
citation. And the blue line is the self citation, meaning the
citation made by Tansu himself.
From the red line, the real number of citation, Tansu citation
increased from year 2000 to 2005 and it peaked. Up until 2005
his work was somewhat important and referenced by other
people. This means Tansu work from his PhD at Wisconsin is
important. After 2005, he moved and become the self-
proclaimed youngest professor at Lehigh, the red line decrease
sharply. This mean Tansu work is not important anymore, of
no relevance and consequence. Tansu real impact is declining
sharply every year.
The green line, the self citation line, is rising slowly after
year 2000 but stayed constant until year 2007. This is when
Tansu is panicked as his citation is getting low. The green line
SELF CITATION LETTER VOLUME 1, Issue 1.
shoots up from 2007 to 2010 meaning the self citation activity
increase every ear. This reflected that the number of citation
dropped sharply in 2007. Tansu is desperate to get attention.
So he keeps increasing his self citation activity as showed in
the green line.
This is the most important finding in the history, the self
consistent citation.
V. EVIDENCE OF HIGH SELF CITATION
There are 2 ways to seek for evidence of high self citation.
The first is to see in each publication how many self
referencing in a publication. Self referencing is the number of
references Tansu provide in a document to other documents
written by himself. The examples are:
• Tansu, N., Zhao, H., Zhang, J., et al 2011. Proceedings of
SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
7954, art. no. 795418. This publication has 40 self
referencing.
• Li, X.-H., Tong, H., Zhao, H., Tansu, N. 2010 .
Proceedings of SPIE -The International Society for Optical
Engineering 7597, art. no.75970H. This publication has 23
self referencing.
• Tong, H., Zhang, J., Zhao, H., Liu, G., Handara, V.A.,
Herbsommer, J.A., Tansu, N. 2010 Proceedings of
SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
7602, art. no. 76020U. This publication has 19 self
referencing.
• Zhao, H., Liu, G., Tansu, N. Applied Physics Letters 97
(13), art. no. 131114. This publication has 16 self referencing.
The examples show that Tansu in total has 10-40 self
referencing in a publication. Each publication reference
himself up to 40 times. This is an excessive self referencing.
The second way to track self citation is to see how many
times Tansu create citation to a publication. If a publication
received many citations by the author himself, it is a direct
evidence that the author manipulates the citation volume and h
index.
The examples are:
• Tansu N., Kirsch N.J., Mawst L.J. 2002, Applied Physics
Letters, (14) 2523. This publication is cited 41 times by
Tansu
• Tansu N., Mawst L.J. 2003, IEEE Journal of Quantum
Electronics. This publication is cited 12 times by Tansu.
• Ee Y.-K., Arif R.A., Tansu N., Kumnorkaew P., Gilchrist
J.F. 2007, Applied Physics Letters. This publication is cited
11 times by Tansu.
The examples show that Tansu can cumulatively cite his
own article up to 41 times to increase the volume of citations.
VI. CONCLUSION
The real impact of Nelson Tansu work is declining after
year 2005, no one cares about his work. However Nelson
Tansu self citation keep increasing every year since 2007. Self
3
citation is a result to seek fame and fortune and to make the
author looks good and manipulates h index. The analysis
reveals the author has a high self citation, able to cite himself
10 to 40 times in a publication. The activity of self citation is
more than 50% of the number of citations he received. As a
result of self consistent self citation his h index increases from
13 to 20.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge helpful technical
discussions with Prof. LJM regarding the calculation and
analysis of self citation. The author declares no conflict of
interest with the subject of this paper.
REFERENCES
[1] Tansu N. 2011. Self Consistent Citation of Tansu Group
Self Citation Letters 1(3):1-3.
[2] Tansu N. 2011. The Truth About Nelson Tansu.
Self Citation Letters 1(2):1-3.
[3] Snyder, H. & Bonzi, S. (1998). Patterns of self-citation across
disciplines (1980-1989). Journal of Information Science, 24(6), 431-
435.
[4] Hyland, K. (2003). Self-citation and self-reference: Credibility and
promotion in academic publication. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, 54(3), 251-259.
[5] Lawani, S. M. (1982). On the heterogeneity and classification of author
self-citations. Journal of the American Society for Information Science,
33(5), 281-284.
Nelson Tansu (born in Medan, Sumatera Utara,
20th of October 1977; age 33 years old) is the world
self-proclaimed youngest professor in history.
Nelson Tansu. He is a self-proclaimed expert and
genius in nanotechnology and optoelectronic from
Indonesia who has become a tenure-tracked
Assistant Professor in the University of Lehigh
when he was 25 years old. Tansu has eliminated
more than 300 doctors to get the position since July
2003. He was the self-proclaimed youngest professors appointed in a high
profile university in America. Since his surname “Tansu” sounds Japanese,
Tansu claims that many Japanese Consulates has tried to persuade him to
return to Japan to contribute to Japan’s economy. BUT, Prof. Tansu declared
that he actually holds a Green Passport with the image of Garuda Pancasila.
Tansu’s Doctorate dissertation received the award as “The 2003 Harold A.
Peterson Best ECE Research Paper Award” winning over 300 other Doctorate
dissertations. In total, he has received 11 scientific international awards and
has published over 200 articles in international journals and more than 1200
self citations. Currently he is a visiting professor in 18 higher education and
research institutions. He is also active and often invited as a speaker in many
international events in USA, Canada, Europe and Asia.
.