Does Article Order Influence Impact?

Abstract

Why are certain articles more impactful than others? Citations are seen as an objective measure of scholarship and are used to determine everything from hiring and tenure to journal prestige and grant funding. But might mere article order (i.e., appearance in a journal issue) bias the number of citations an article receives? Might appearing earlier (e.g. first) lead articles to be cited more frequently? Analysis of 25 years of citation data indicates not only (1) that articles which appear earlier receive more citations, but that (2) this effect is likely a result of psychological biases in attention and memory: Earlier articles should benefit from primacy effects, which should lead them to be cited more. The findings suggest that article order not only reflects editors' perception of quality, but also influences the prominence research achieves. The results contribute to the marketing literature and deepen understanding around the drivers of article impact. They also have important implications for the management of journals, usage of citations as a decision metric, and position effects in marketing practice more generally.

Keywords: Scientometrics, Citations, Order Effects, Marketing of Science