Citations are a proxy for paper quality and broader impact.
But what can we do? When citations counts are manipulated? And inflated?
When people cheat, it hurts the integrity of academe.
How can we stop it? And can we sanction scofflaws?
First, we should all acknowledge that very few papers will be cited dozens of times immediately after publication.
It can happen.
But approach with caution
Second, we should all acknowledge that reaching thousands of citations typically takes a decade.
Some scholars do have a sudden jump in citations.
But approach with caution.
Third, we should have blunt conversations about paper mills and citation inflation.
We should educate students on the peril they create to knowledge creation.
Latour was right in asserting that the perception of quality research can be socially constructed.
Such perceptions built on sand are dangerous for all of us.
So approach with caution.
Fourth, we need metrics to detect anomalies.
Such metrics are a bit like Occam’s razor - they can help us flag really good and really suspicious work.
As Communities, we can use such metrics to self-regulate or administrators can use them to assess faculty.
But they can also be toxic.
So we need to approach with caution how we use them.
Finally, we need to spend more time on ethics and research in PhD training.
In an increasingly competitive world, students need better training on the rules of the game.
Let’s build a better academe!
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