Navigating Research Fraud

Citation manipulation is any practice that artificially inflates citation counts or misrepresents the influence of a scholarly work. According to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), manipulative citation is "characterised by behaviours intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the journal publishing the citing article, or excessive citation between journals in a coordinated manner."

Citation manipulation erodes public trust and distorts the scholarly record (COPE, 2025). 

Excessive self-citations

While self-citation is appropriate in many situations, such as to ensure reseach continuity, self-citations included with the purpose of inflating one's scholarly impact may indicate manipulation.

Coercive citations

Coercive citations occur when editors or peer-reviewers request that authors include unnecessary references to their own work or to articles published in the journal, sometimes in exchange for publication. 

Ghost citations

Ghost citations are references to non-existant papers. They are often attributed to the use of generative AI, such at ChatGPT. 

Citation cartels

Citation cartels refer to groups of researchers or journals who collude to increase citations to each others' papers. 

For individuals:

• Cite for relevance
• Diversify your citations
• Be transparent
• Use citation management tools

For reviewers and editors:

• Avoid suggesting citations to your own work unless truly relevant
• Don't pressure authors to cite specific journals or articles
• Report suspicious patterns to Editorial Boards

For institutions and journals:

• Use Scopus or Web of Science for citation evaluation
• Familiarize yourself with COPE guidelines
• Form clear policies for authors, reviewers, and editors