I have a recent observation from a scientific journal, in which the editor asks the authors to try to add more papers from the journal in question into the reference list, before the paper goes to press. Given that the authors of the paper most probably know better than the editor which papers should reside in the reference list, surely it is only a blatant attempt to inflate the journal's own statistics, although this must clearly be unethical. I wish that every publisher and every editor take a moment and reflect upon how dishonest and potentially damaging this practice is.
Michael-- I once stepped down as AE for a journal when the EIC sent an email to AE's asking them to encourage this "pump up citations" behavior. I also reported it to the society sponsoring the Journal. Subsequent EIC's cleaned it up and stopped the practice. You cannot count on authors alone; the editorial board needs to stand up and banish the practice. Not likely happening with all the new open-access shady commercial journals.
By doing so they aim to increase their journal citation index which in my opinion is not very ethical.
It is a way for increasing journal's citation index and impact factor. I think it is a kind of scientific bribe and not ethical.
The motive is clear for *everyone*, and that's why it is so puzzling - everyone can see the motive for this, and that it is *immoral* to continue this practice.
Yes, that is the obvious reason - but it's also very silly to ask for it: everyone knows that it is immoral, even the editor. It's like the H.C. Andersen story of the emperor's new clothes - they're not even there: EVERYONE can see his bottom. Why do they insist in making a fool of themselves?
The next question is: what can we then do about it ? If you refuse, the publication of your paper might be delayed. Can the editor even refuse to publish it at this point ? Otherwise he/she has leverage, since going through another journal publication procedure might take another year or so, which is a very long time nowadays.
Does a recourse exist ?
I think that the added request for the addition of citations to the same journal comes only after the acceptance notification, whence it is probably not possible for the publisher to *insist* that papers from that journal should be added. But that's not the point; the point is that it is an immoral request.
Well I think that everybody agrees on that, at least I hope... But what you do about it is also a relevant topic to bring, since such behaviour is not public and it is not easy to make it publicly known. Actually there is a way to check the level of self-citation of a journal on Journal Citation Report: the Impact Factor for the journal is given both with and without citations. So the journals with a large proportion of self-cites might be considered with a bit of suspicion I guess...
Well, those of us who have seen this mentioned in the "editorial statement" could of course let the editor know that this is bad behaviour; on the other hand it takes guts to tell an editor, for a journal that she/he wants to publish in that they should stop that nonsense - would not that prospective author perhaps be treated unfairly?
Ethical or not, do you have a choice after a year or so of hardworking? can you say no? or can we?
There is an easy way out - ignore the editor's wish, without any comment.
we can ignore the wish but who guarantee that the publication will not be postponed for a year or so, this is quite easy to do by any editor.
Ahmad: if that were the case, would you not stop publish your papers in that journal? I would.
I encountred the same problem. I had a bad experience with journal to publish my paper, the journal asked to add at least three references for their journal papers, and also they took roughly two year to publish my paper. However, I published another paper with a better journal and they did not ask me to add any reference for their journal and they took almost one year or perhaps less.
The problem is to publish your research after two year which I find it badly and make your research useless, because which it is considered a novel and very useful before two year is not the case today.
If that request starts from submission (before acceptance), it is helpful for editor to choose the best-matching reviewers to submitted topics. Editor gives prior to select reviewers from their own journal. If that request is after acceptance, purpose is to improve the scores (citation, h-index, impact). However, I think that request is only flexible, not strong. You can ignore it.
Sure I always ignore it. The question is whether I - or we - should ask the editors to stop this nonsense, or publish elsewhere.
Dang: the editor's (or rather, editorial board) role should ONLY be to (a) screen the paper to see if it on topic, (b) passes the screening on correct language and format, plagiarism and novelty, and whether it fits the journal's wishes to widen the scope or keep the narrow one (according to the editorial statement) of the journal; and select a good range of reviewers, and that's it.
In order to increase the impact factor it is not wise - or even allowed - to ask for journal self-citations. We know better than the editors which articles are pertinent to the paper we are writing. Next time any editor asks me for such a favour, there will be consequences.
Why should I encourage this exploitative behavior? Do you abstain late publication? Let it be. But should not deal with this magazine and do not let anyone deal with it
Very clear to improve the cite score for the journal to get higher impact factor.
business is overwhelming the science at the moment. This immoral behavior of the editors should guide us as scholars and academics to push toward new measures to evaluate the scientific product other than the measures currently adopted.
I hope all of us who feel this way can find other journals that are just as good then. :-)
Michael-- I once stepped down as AE for a journal when the EIC sent an email to AE's asking them to encourage this "pump up citations" behavior. I also reported it to the society sponsoring the Journal. Subsequent EIC's cleaned it up and stopped the practice. You cannot count on authors alone; the editorial board needs to stand up and banish the practice. Not likely happening with all the new open-access shady commercial journals.
You are right, Hani. It's a business that has become shadier (if the word exists!) over the years.
This is true and its always happening these days. To my knowledge, it should classified as publication politics.
Probably because the journals are trying to improve their impact factor
I have never encountered such a case. In contrary I believe adding citations for the same journals where my manuscript is expected to be published will not increase its impact factor as this is not counted I believe. I think your case is an exception.
I think they want to increase their impact factors. It is a way of bribing
This is a bad practice but few journals do this practice to increase impact factor of the journal.
This is a common phenomenon. Sometime reviewer also ask to cite papers which is not relevant to the research work.
I believed that they must be trying to advertise earn more credits to the journal
Hello
I found one of that case you should reference 2 authors of this magazine in your publication. Maybe they want to recognize this research.
While it would be quite natural to write an e-mail to the editorial boards of those journals, in order to point out that the request is un-ethical, it might backfire, of course - they might remember your name for a long time, and be harsher towards you when you submit your manuscript next time ...
I have never experienced this but one of my colleagues has. It sounds pretty disturbing, indeed you may require someone to add more literature review to a submitted manuscript but you do not have to specify a journal. naturally most literature review and similar papers would come from the said journal or sister journals and thats fine.
I feel a need to expand my response to Haji: it is quite unique to read that editors do not want self-citations; plenty of members at RG appear to be rather hungry for any reward they can get, including inflated RG scores. I see a bright future beyond the horizon ... :-)
It is not a general case. However, if your article is accepted that is good news:)
It is a kind of bribe that authors make to the journal. The journal will accept low quality papers and the authors have to pay the cost of that by citing from the journal. It doesn't happen with respectful journals
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