Hidden dangers of a citation culture

The influence of the journal impact factor and the effect of a 'citation culture' on science and scientists have been discussed extensively (Lawrence 2007; Curr Biol 17:R583-585). Nevertheless, many still believe that the number of citations a paper receives provides some measure of its quality. This belief may be unfounded, however, as there are 2 substantial areas of error that can distort a citation count or any metric based on a citation count. One is the deliberate manipulation of the system by scientists trying to ensure the highest possible number of cites to their papers; this has been examined elsewhere The second area of inaccuracy is inherent to how papers are cited, indexed and searched for. It is this latter, lesser known, source of error that we will investigate here

Bibliometrics · Citation · Impact factor · Index (typography · Library science · Political science · Politics · Sociology · World Wide Web · Academic Writing and Publishing · Computer Science · Law · Scientific Computing and Data Management · scientometrics and bibliometrics research

• Signs of epistemic disruption

  Open Access•William W Cope, Mary Kalantzis•First Monday•2009

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• Tracking a “radioactive tracer”

  Open Access•Ho Fai Chan, Ella Hugo et al.•Scientometrics•2024

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• Journal visibility, self-citation, and reference limits

  Open Access•PW Sammarco•Ethics in Science and Environmental…•2008

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• A taxonomy of motives to cite

  Open Access•Martin G Erikson, Peter Erlandson•Social Studies of Science•2014

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• Control by numbers

  Kathleen Lynch•Critical Studies in Education•2014

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• Introduction Factors and Indices Are One Thing, Deciding Who Is Scholarly, Why They Are Scholarly, and the Relative Value of Their Scholarship Is Something Else Entirely

  Open Access•Howard I Browman, KI Stergiou•Ethics in Science and Environmental…•2008

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• New managerialism, neoliberalism and ranking

  Open Access•Kathleen Lynch•Ethics in Science and Environmental…•2013

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• Explorative Visualization of Citation Patterns in Social Network Research

  Open Access•Ulrik Brandes, Christian Pich•Journal of Social Structure•2011

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• Ambiguity, Bias, and Compromise

  Open Access•Peter A Todd•Environment and Planning A…•2009

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• Citation indexing, its theory and application in science, technology, and humanities

  Eugene Garfield•Citation indexing, its theory and…•1983

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• Impact of data sources on citation counts and rankings of LIS faculty

  Open Access•Lokman I Meho, Kiduk Yang•Journal of the Association for…•2007

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• Extinction risk from climate change

  Open Access•Chris D Thomas, Alison Cameron et al.•Nature•2004

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• The siege of science

  Open Access•Michael Taylor, Pandelis Perakakis et al.•Ethics in Science and Environmental…•2008

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• Google Scholar as a new source for citation analysis

  Open Access•Anne-Wil Harzing, René Van Der Wal•Ethics in Science and Environmental…•2007

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• Escape from the impact factor

  Open Access•Penelope Campbell•Ethics in Science and Environmental…•2008

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• Using a balanced approach to bibliometrics

  Open Access•Lorraine Butler•Ethics in Science and Environmental…•2007

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• Are our referencing errors undermining our scholarship and credibility? The case of expatriate failure rates

  Open Access•Anne-Wil Harzing, Anne‐Wil Harzing•Journal of Organizational Behavior•2002

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• Scientists and the media

  Richard J Ladle, Paul Jepson et al.•Interdisciplinary Science Reviews•2005

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