SELF CITATION LETTER Volume 1, Issue 3
Self-Consistent Citation of
Tansu Group
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 self consistent citation is happening at
Tansu Group.
Index Terms— Optoelectronics; Semiconductor Properties;
Semiconductor Diode Lasers; Metalorganic chemical Vapor
Deposition; Quantum Wells; III/V compound semiconductor
materials.
I. INTRODUCTION
T ansu Group is promoted to advance the science and
technology of semiconductor optoelectronics, based on
low-dimensional (or semiconductor nanostructure) gain media.
The pursuit of our research covers both the theoretical and
experimental aspects of the physics, devices, and MOCVD
growth of semiconductor optoelectronics material and devices,
compound semiconductors, and low-dimensional
semiconductors[1,2]. Our research field, which is in the
Applied Physics area, utilizes knowledge and ideas derived
from fundamental physics to advance the science & technology
of semiconductor optoelectronics for engineering applications.
The experimental aspects include the material epitaxy with
metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) & device
fabrications of III-V and III-Nitride compound semiconductor
nanostructures and optoelectronics devices. In our laboratory
(as part of Center for Optical Technologies), we currently have
two MOCVD reactors, with one reactor dedicated for the III-
Nitride (GaN-based) optoelectronics and nanostructures
research (P-75 reactor) and the other for GaAs / InP-based
optoelectronics and nanostructures research (D-125 reactor).
Several focus of our research works are listed below. Our
research works on semiconductor nanostructure and
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.
1
optoelectronics primarily focus on applications in the fields of
energy (wide bandgap semiconductor for high-efficiency solid
state lightings, and high-efficiency solar photovoltaic cells),
optical communications (dilute-nitride or InGaAsN QW
lasers), free space and NLOS communications (mid-IR lasers
and UV LEDs), biological and chemical sensors (mid-IR and
UV optoelectronics), and recently also on III-Nitride based
dilute-magnetic semiconductors and surface plasmonics [3].
Nelson Tansu, 26, an assistant professor of electrical and
computer engineering at Lehigh, have reported the best
threshold values to date for near-infrared-range (with an
emission wavelength of 1300-nm), indium-gallium-arsenide-
nitride (InGaAsN) lasers that emit from a quantum well
[1,2,3].
The researchers published their findings in Applied Physics
Letters (APL) [4].
The paper Growths of staggered InGaN quantum wells
light-emitting diodes emitting at 520-525 nm employing
graded growth-temperature profile. Zhao Hongping; Liu
Guangyu; Li Xiao-Hang; et al. APPLIED PHYSICS
LETTERS Volume: 95 Issue: 6 Article No.: 061104
This paper is cited 18 times all by Tansu himself [5].
Another important paper: Self-consistent gain analysis of
type-II 'W' InGaN-GaNAs quantum well lasers. Zhao
Hongping ; Arif Ronald A. ; Tansu Nelson. JOURNAL OF
APPLIED PHYSICS Volume: 104 Issue: 4 Article
No.: 043104. This paper is cited 23 times by Tansu.
Tansu's group also reported the best self citation values up
to 40 self citation paper.
The goal of Tansu's work is to use metal organic chemical
vapor deposition (MOCVD) to develop lasers and advanced
compound semiconductor nanostructures for optoelectronic
devices. He also seeks to combine these semiconductor
nanostructures with photonic crystals (artificial structures with
periodicity of certain optical properties) to make novel
optoelectronic devices. His work has applications in optical
communications, mid-infrared devices, free-space
communications, visible light sources, information sciences,
and biochemical detection.
Nelson Tansu made Tansu Group and 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
SELF CITATION LETTER Volume 1, Issue 3 2

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 Tansu Group. 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 authors from Tansu Group at Lehigh were 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.
III. NUMBER OF SELF CITATIONS
1400
percent of self citation in the Tansu group is incredibly high.
From 52% to 92%. This is all because of Nelson Tansu
making the self citation on the papers his group published.
Fig. 1 make it clear that all the citation received by Tansu
Group is self citation. The red color is all self citation.
Fig. 2 shows the h index of the Tansu Group. The blue
color is the real h index (without self citation) and the red
color is self citation. The sin of Tansu in making all the self
citation. The student suffer having a high self citation and no
impact.
This mean Tansu work is not important anymore, of no
relevance and consequence. Tansu real impact is declining
sharply every year.
IV. CONCLUSION
Nelson Tansu created a groups full of self citation. There is
no real impact of Tansu work. Nelson Tansu self citation keep
increasing every year. Self 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 90% of the number of
citations he received. As a result of self consistent self citation
his h index increases from 13 to 20.
25

1200
20
1000

800
15
Self citation h index self citation
600
Real citation 10 real h index
400
5
200

0 0
Tansu Arif Ee Zhao Liu Tansu Arif Ee Zhao Liu

Fig. 1 The number of self citation by Tansu Group.

Fig. 2 The real h index (blue bar) and the h index caused
by self citation by Tansu Group.
No. No. No. self % Self
papers citation citation Citation
Tansu 153 1253 652 52 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Arif 47 312 246 79
The authors would like to acknowledge helpful technical
Ee 39 271 201 74
discussions with Prof. Tansu regarding the calculation and
Zhao 25 60 53 88
analysis of self citation.
Liu 22 26 24 92

The table above shows the number of papers, number of

citation and number of self citation from Tansu Group. The
SELF CITATION LETTER Volume 1, Issue 3 3

REFERENCES
[1] Tansu N. 2011. Self Consistent Citation Analysis of
Nelson Tansu. Self Citation Letters 1(1):1-3.
[2] Tansu N. 2011. The Truth About Nelson Tansu.
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.

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.