Mohamed Abd-allah you are correct. I have also experienced such a case.

One can withdraw the MS. Apart any other step does not seem to be feasible.

Sometimes we have come across that some reviewers put conditions to cite their work or even some editors to cite articles from their publications to increase their citescore.

Frankly speaking I have never faced such a situation in my academic career so far. As a referee also, I never forced any author to cite my work. I think these are cheap practices and must be avoided.

Aha, this is news to me!

We are not faced such a situation! But sometimes we observed that submitted manuscript, very near related work if they published recently, they ask to cite. Sometimes the recent publications related to our submitted manuscript if we add as a reference that will very useful for editor or reviewers to make decisions about our submitted manuscript.

Interesting, following

Thanks for all replies, I appreciate all opinions, but its the 2nd time for me to got such situation with higher impact factor journal, these reviewers asked me directly to add self citation of them articles, the strange thing on its order is they ask to cite more than 20 self citation as a condition to accept my article so I write to the editor and told him about that. but I prefer to warning people and also to find a solution what shall we do for such situation

Sometimes, it is caused by the fact that the topic is strongly connected with reviewers research interests. I met such situation, but reviewer proposed me to cite his work, I was not forced to do it. I think that in such cases it is acceptable, but when we are talking f.e. about 1,2 citation, but not 20 .......

I think that you've done good work when writing to the editor. I'm curious about his response

I have also come across this issue twice. I have to search for the references again that matches with my paper title. The whole process is totally out of work ethics and I had hard time reviewing it. So, hope this does not happen again in future.

Sanatombi Devi Yumkham, its the same like what happen to me but I get the name of this reviewer from the list that sent to me and message the editor about what happen with me, the editor told me that he will remove him from reviewing anymore on the journal. Hope this doesn't happen anymore again in the future.

There are several reputable articles appearing on reputable journals which have self citations. This is not a problem. What matters is the quality of your article.

Tilahun Tehulu, self citations is not problem for me, but don't take advantage of being a reviewer to force the authors to put your articles as a reference as a condition for accepting the authors article

That is a crime sir. Poor mind reviewers may do that but never expect this from reputable journals.

Tilahun Tehulu, believe me sir that, this is a very good journal with impact factor more than 1.5, I really agree with you about that is crimes, but this situation repeated with me twice so we must find a solution for how we can deal with such situation and I really hope that this situation doesn't happen anymore again in the future.

Have you got an answer from the journal editor ?

@ Aleksandra Szewieczek

Unfortunately, the editor told that He will warning him but he can't prevent him from being reviewer because he is one of the main reviewers of the journal beside he will convert my article to another reviewer.

I encountered this situation once time but the reviewer recommended adding diligently twice citation for his works.

Farid Cheira But its not fair for any reviewer to ask self citation and I really hope that this situation doesn't happen anymore again in the future.

Joshua O. Ighalo, I agree with you its unethical and not fair for any reviewer to do that and we must inform the journal editor about that if it happen again with anyone in the future

Only

to revise the paper.

Dmytro Leshchenko, do you mean that you accept that action?

Yes.

Dmytro Leshchenko but its not fair to ask about self citation as a condition for accept or reject the paper, No one forced you to review the paper, you accept by yourself, I'm completely no agree with you and really if this happen with me again I will inform the editor directly without respond to this comment.

Khaoula Hidouri

I am surprised.

Following

Mohd Rafi mohd solleh I'm surprised too from a person confesses that he is doing that in return for his review of the research paper or as a price to review it

No.

Dear Khaoula

Thanks you very much for your decision

this is really an important point to be discussed

best

Its unethical

Mala Babagana Gutti, I agree with you its unethical and we must all didn't obey who ask that and must inform the journal editor directly

Salim Heddam yes I agree with you, that is so important point

Such a bad things is Shameful for the scientific community

This is unethical and shows how desperate this reviewer is for citations. He must rather focus on improving his research so that it makes meaningful contributions to knowledge. Rather than begging to be cited or as a condition to accept a paper..

Ahmadi Murjani

Gopal Shukla I really agree with you but unfortunately that happen

Samuel Amponsah Odei, yes I really agree with you and thank you so much for your positive reply

Ahmadi Murjani

Actually, do not see only the bad part in this, as long as you submit an article to that journal it means you studied the journal and you know perfectly that the journal matches to your profile. The fact that you don't cite any of the articles of the journal means that actually you didn't read at all any possible article of that journal :)

have no knowledge of such practices. If there is a bad thing that does not honor the academic environment.

Adelajda Matuka when I chose journal for my article that not mean that I see or read all the publications of this journal or chose citation from it. beside its not condition for any journal to cite its articles.

here I talk about when I reviewer in this journal ask a self citation of himself not for this journal.

best regards

Adriana Denisa Manea when that happen with me, I inform the journal editor about this situation but the editor reply was strange he told me that this editor is one of the mean reviewers of the journal and we can't get ride of him so we will convert your paper to other reviewer

I agree with you its doesn't honor the academic environment.

best regards

You can always asked the editor regarding this and even if with that you are not satisfied, its better to go with a different journal. These things happen all the time in the research domain.

Nishesh Kumar Gupta my question not related to the editor, when I didn't find any comments on my article just he asked to added some of his research as self citation and this is a condition for pass my paper for published

Yes I know Mohamed Abd-allah what you meant with your statement. But I am saying you to inform this to the Editor and even with that he is not supportive you can always choose to publish in a different journal. This behavior of a reviewer grows with more number of his requests getting fulfilled.

Nishesh Kumar Gupta,

1st of all I didn't add any of his references to my article but when I send my paper back to the journal I fins that all reviewers accept except him and he didn't accept my paper so I inform the editor for all of this and send him his name and email and position and all his information and the list of papers that he would like to added but unfortunately the editor told me that this one of the mean journal reviewers and he just convert my paper to another one

I have came across such thing once where one of the reviewer told me to restructure the whole manuscript so that his paper can be cited. So, I declined doing that and even with that my paper was accepted. Many times, if one of the reviewers is not in the favor but others are, the manuscript gets accepted.

Nishesh Kumar Gupta you do great when you refuse to cite him and beside that you had to inform the editor but you do well and hope anyone across such thing didn't afraid and inform the editor of the journal

I have faced the situation once where one of the reviewers wanted me to have some characterisation which is irrelevant to my article and also cite two of his publications. We have refused to do so twice in both major & minor revisions as it is not pertaining our work. Eventually the paper was accepted.

I think that we have to be positive in our deductions, the reviewing is itself a fastidious task and the reviewers make a considerable effort to keep credibility to the scientific production. if one person has failed, it should not be generalized. Me personally I had a deal with reviewers who increased the quality of my articles.