Reference density trends in the major disciplines

Our analysis identified that (a) mean reference density values in some Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities categories were equal to or higher than those in the “hard sciences”; (b) reference density growth rates in these disciplines were not as high as those in the hard sciences and, in general, did not correspond with growth rates in the number of documents produced; (c) this can be considered an indication that citation-based evaluation practices affect publication habits; and (d) no significant differences were found in mean values or growth rates between Gold Open Access and Non Gold Open Access journals.