Hidden dangers of a citation culture

PA Todd · Richard J. Ladle

79 citations0/0 files storedEthics in Science and Environmental Politics

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scientometrics and bibliometrics research Psychology Research and Bibliometrics Web visibility and informetrics

Abstract

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 (Lawrence 2003; Nature 422:259-261).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.

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1980Citation Indexing-Its Theory and Application in Science, Technology, and Humanities 2007Impact of data sources on citation counts and rankings of LIS faculty: Web of science versus scopus and google scholar 2007Google Scholar as a new source for citation analysis 1996Fortnightly Review: How can impact factors be improved?2003The politics of publication 2007The mismeasurement of science 2007Show me the data 2024Read Before You Cite!

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