Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers
Abstract Citations are widely considered in scientists’ evaluation. As such, scientists may be incentivized to inflate their citation counts. While previous literature has examined self-citations and citation cartels, it remains unclear whether scientists can purchase citations. Here, we compile a d...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88709-7 |
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| _version_ | 1850067596719685632 |
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| author | Hazem Ibrahim Fengyuan Liu Yasir Zaki Talal Rahwan |
| author_facet | Hazem Ibrahim Fengyuan Liu Yasir Zaki Talal Rahwan |
| author_sort | Hazem Ibrahim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Citations are widely considered in scientists’ evaluation. As such, scientists may be incentivized to inflate their citation counts. While previous literature has examined self-citations and citation cartels, it remains unclear whether scientists can purchase citations. Here, we compile a dataset of ~1.6 million profiles on Google Scholar to examine instances of citation fraud on the platform. We survey faculty at highly-ranked universities, and confirm that Google Scholar is widely used when evaluating scientists. We then engage with a citation-boosting service, and manage to purchase 50 citations while assuming the identity of a fictional author. Taken as a whole, our findings bring to light new forms of citation manipulation, and emphasize the need to look beyond citation counts. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-eb288edf32c44e718edfed1008698f30 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-eb288edf32c44e718edfed1008698f302025-08-20T02:48:16ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-02-0115111310.1038/s41598-025-88709-7Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print serversHazem Ibrahim0Fengyuan Liu1Yasir Zaki2Talal Rahwan3Department of Computer Science, New York UniversityDepartment of Computer Science, New York UniversityDepartment of Computer Science, New York UniversityDepartment of Computer Science, New York UniversityAbstract Citations are widely considered in scientists’ evaluation. As such, scientists may be incentivized to inflate their citation counts. While previous literature has examined self-citations and citation cartels, it remains unclear whether scientists can purchase citations. Here, we compile a dataset of ~1.6 million profiles on Google Scholar to examine instances of citation fraud on the platform. We survey faculty at highly-ranked universities, and confirm that Google Scholar is widely used when evaluating scientists. We then engage with a citation-boosting service, and manage to purchase 50 citations while assuming the identity of a fictional author. Taken as a whole, our findings bring to light new forms of citation manipulation, and emphasize the need to look beyond citation counts.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88709-7 |
| spellingShingle | Hazem Ibrahim Fengyuan Liu Yasir Zaki Talal Rahwan Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers Scientific Reports |
| title | Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers |
| title_full | Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers |
| title_fullStr | Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers |
| title_short | Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers |
| title_sort | citation manipulation through citation mills and pre print servers |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88709-7 |
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