Avoiding plagiarism,
self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical
writing
Inappropriate Manipulation of References
In a later section I discuss the tendency on the part of some scientists to provide what may be a biased review of the relevant literature. That is, in providing a context for the presentation of our data or theory, we sometimes cite only references that are favorable to our position. However, ethical writers have a responsibility to cite all relevant material, even work that may contradict our own point of view. Failure to do so compromises our objectivity and is contrary to the primary mission of a scientist which is to search for truth.
- Citation
Stuffing
Another way in which references are thought to be inappropriately manipulated occurs when authors intentionally cite their own articles, regardless of their relevance, in an attempt to raise their own articles’ impact factor. The impact factor is a measure of importance and prestige of journals that takes into account how often articles published in those journals are cited. However, a measure of the number of times an article is cited in other articles can also be used as a measure of their importance in an individuals’ tenure and review decisions, thus the tendency of some authors to weave into their paper references of their own prior work that are largely irrelevant to the current topic.
A related matter involves the inappropriate inclusion of references that are authored by individuals thought to be likely peer reviewers of the article in question. The thought being that the reviewer will be more likely to give a favorable review to a paper that cites his or her own work than to one that does not.
Finally, there is some evidence that editors of some journals sometimes insist that authors include references from their journal for the mere purpose of enhancing that journal’s impact factor (see WAME discussion of March 7th to the 16th, 2006: Manipulating a Journal’s Impact Factor). Authors should attempt to resist such requests unless the editors’ recommendations are genuinely relevant to their paper.
GUIDELINE 15: The references used in a paper should only be those that are directly related to its contents. The intentional inclusion of references of questionable relevance for purposes of manipulating a journal’s or a paper’s impact factor or a paper’s chances of acceptance is an unacceptable practice.
