  Empirical analysis results about the possible causes leading to non-citation
may help increase the potential of researchers' work to be cited and editorial
staffs of journals to identify contributions with potential high quality. In
this study, we conduct a survey on the possible causes leading to citation or
non-citation based on a questionnaire. We then perform a statistical analysis
to identify the major causes leading to non-citation in combination with the
analysis on the data collected through the survey. Most respondents to our
questionnaire identified eight major causes that facilitate easy citation of
one's papers, such as research hotspots and novel topics of content, longer
intervals after publication, research topics similar to my work, high quality
of content, reasonable self-citation, highlighted title, prestigious authors,
academic tastes and interests similar to mine.They also pointed out that the
vast difference between their current and former research directions as the
primary reason for their previously uncited papers. They feel that text that
includes notes, comments, and letters to editors are rarely cited, and the same
is true for too short or too lengthy papers. In comparison, it is easier for
reviews, articles, or papers of intermediate length to be cited.
