MY ARTICLES ON SUICIDE THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN CITED
David Lester
As of June 24, 2021, my top cited articles according to Google Scholar are the following.
AT Beck, A Weissman, D Lester, L Trexler (1974). The measurement of
pessimism: the hopelessness scale. Journal of consulting and clinical
psychology, 42(6), 861-865
Citations: 6785
LJ Collett, D Lester (1969). The fear of death and the fear of dying. Journal
of Psychology, 72(2), 179-181
Citations: 725
D Lester (1992). Why people kill themselves: a 1990s summary of research
findings on suicidal behavior. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas 1992
Citations: 486
K Krysinska, D Lester (2010. Post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide
risk: a systematic review. Archives of suicide research, 14(1), 1-23
Citations: 411
M Pompili, G Serafini, M Innamorati, G Dominici, S Ferracuti, ...(2010).
Suicidal behavior and alcohol abuse. International journal of environmental
research and public health, 7(4)
Citations: 399
M Pompili, XF Amador, P Girardi, J Harkavy-Friedman, M Harrow, ...(2007).
Suicide risk in schizophrenia: learning from the past to change the future. Annals
of general psychiatry 6(1), 1-22.
Citations: 386
My most cited article is not specifically on suicide but, of course, it has been cited frequently in articles on suicide, and the scale (and its construct) have become central in the field. I work on topics other than suicide, and my fear of death scale has become my second most cited article. Why People Kill Themselves has four different editions, each reviewing suicide research from different decades and eras, and one of the four ranks third. I work with Maurizio Pompili and his team on many articles, and two of those are in my top-six most cited articles. None of this is surprising except for the amazingly large number of citations for the Hopeless Scale.
I have 53,304 citations for my work, my h-index is 89 and my i10-index 1100. I have 2,719 articles on my Google Scholar profile. Pretty good, but I have a large number of articles that have never been cited.
Sixteen were published in 2021 and 34 in 2020, and so they are too recent to be cited. I eliminated articles without suicide in the title. Of the remaining articles, three were letters to medical journal, while 54 were in Psychological Reports, and 32 in Perceptual and Motor Skills, almost all of which were brief notes in journals that used to have a very poor reputation among scholars, but which published many ground-breaking and creative ideas (or at least of some interest).
D Lester (1993). A test of a social deviancy theory of suicide using the foreign born. Psychological reports, 73(1), 58-58.
Other uncited articles were general articles in job-oriented journals such as
D Lester (1986). The suicidal person: Recognition and helping Police J. 59, 216-221
Some were in proceedings from conferences, books that are rarely read, such as
D Lester, ME Murrell (1983). The influence of strict handgun laws on suicidal behavior in the USA. Depression and Suicide: Aspects Medicaux, Psychologiques et Socio-Culturels…
Others were editorials, chapters in books, and articles in foreign journals such as Journal of Islamic Countries Organization of Forensic Medicine, South African Journal of Psychology, and Giornale Italiano di Suicidologia.
What is interesting to note in that there are some journals that had many of my uncited articles including Crisis and Suicidology Online, indicating perhaps that either the major scholars in the field do not peruse these journals or that abstracting services do not flag these articles. The lack of citations for articles in the European Journal of Psychiatry is surprising.
D Lester (1991). Are the societal correlates of suicide and homicide rates the same for each lethal weapon? A study of European nations. European Journal of Psychiatry 5, 5-8.
What have researchers missed? One of the articles never cited was on suicide in prisoners, suggesting that some populations are of less interest than others.
MS Heller, SM Ehrlich, D Lester. (1985). Suicidal history of defendants and offenders. Journal of general psychology 112(2), 221-223.
Some topics are also of less interest to researchers, and perhaps some countries.
D Lester (1994). Suicide and Anti-Semitism: The Suicides of Stefan Zweig and Otto Weininger. Journal of Psychology & Judaism 18, 249-258.
A Czabański, D Lester. (2013). Suicide among Polish officers during World War II in Oflag II-C Woldenberg. Psychological Reports 112, 727-731.
EJD Wilde, D Lester. (2002). Social protests and rates of personal violence in the Netherlands. Archives of suicide research 6(3), 249-255.
However, all is not lost. My most cited article in Psychological Reports had 175 citations as of April 2021, but it was not on suicide. Perhaps you should check my one-page notes on suicide?
D Lester Measuring Maslow's hierarchy of needs (2013). Psychological reports 113(1), 15-17.Citations: 175
