Introduction: It is important for dental publications to cite appropriate evidence from relevant studies regardless of the continent of origin of the cited work, but anecdotal observations suggest that citations reflect continental bias.  Objective: To determine if articles published by authors affiliated with North America (NA), Europe (EU), and Oceania (OC= SE Asia) cite references with first authors from NA, EU, or OC with different frequencies, and to examine the influence of the journal's geographic origin on these patterns. Methods: In a preliminary investigation for a larger study, ISI and Pubmed were used to retrieve cited references and first author affiliations for research articles published in Y2002 in one NA journal (JDR=J Dent Res, N=141) and one European journal (EJOS=Eur J Oral Sci, N=71).  Each article was classified by the first author's association with NA, EU, OC, or Other regions. Then, first authors for the cited references within each article were similarly classified. Chi-square analysis (p<0.05) within journals was conducted.

Article First Author	JDR, Reference First Author (n=2573)				EJOS, Reference First Author (n=1580)
	EU	NA	OC	Other	EU	NA	OC	Other
EU	424	314	64	10	685	404	102	16
NA	278	639	77	22	29	50	14	3
OC	198	347	232	14	96	131	69	4

Results: Articles from EU (JDR, n=424; EJOS, n=685) and NA (JDR, n=639; EJOS, n=50) tended to cite references from authors on their own continent of origin (p<0.0001). Articles from OC cited OC more frequently in JDR (n=232) and cited NA in EJOS (n=131).  Although only a single comparison of journals is available, there may also be a “journal effect” (tendency for same continent citation heightened for authors on that journal's continent). Conclusion:  These results suggest that strength and relevance are not the only determinants of reference selection.