From citation metrics to citation ethics: Critical examination of a highly-cited 2017 moth pheromone paper

Jaime A. Teixeira Silva (), Neil J. Vickers () and Serhii Nazarovets ()
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Neil J. Vickers: University of Utah
Serhii Nazarovets: Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University

Scientometrics, 2024, vol. 129, issue 1, No 26, 693-703

Abstract: Abstract In this letter, we focus on a very curious and bibliometrically important case of a 2017 moth pheromone paper published in Cell Press’ Current Biology that has already accumulated over 1600 Google Scholar-based citations within the past 4 years (i.e., since 2020) to appreciate whether all those citations are valid, i.e., within thematic scope, or whether a portion of those citations might be invalid, and which we colloquially refer to herein as “unwanted citations”. Our investigation assessed Scopus-based data (1088 citations on 10 August 2023). In addition to creating a SciVal thematic profile, which indicated a wide diversity of topics of papers citing the 2017 paper, a manual screen revealed only one paper that was directly thematically relevant to the topic of insect reproductive biology. The remaining > 99% of citations, or “unwanted citations”, are invalid. To reflect a valid state of scientific truthfulness, those papers should be corrected to reflect that citation abuse has taken place.

Keywords: Academic publishing; Authors’ rights; Citations for sale; Citation manipulation; Google Scholar; Paper mills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-023-04855-7

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