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Signs of ‘citation hacking’ flagged in scientific papers

An algorithm developed to spot abnormal patterns of citations aims to find scientists who have manipulated reference lists.
  1. Richard Van Noorden
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Scientists who get too many references to their own work inserted in others’ papers — whether by prior arrangement or by asking for extra references during peer review — might leave telltale fingerprints in the citation record, say two researchers who have developed a way to detect what they call citation hacking.

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Nature 584, 508 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02378-2

References

  1. Wren, J. D. & Georgescu, C. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.12.248369 (2020).

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