In 2023, a new Google Scholar profile appeared online featuring a researcher no one had ever heard of. Within a few months, the scientist, an expert in fake news, was listed by the scholarly database as their field’s 36th most cited researcher. They had an h-index of 19—meaning they’d published 19 academic articles that had been cited at least 19 times each. It was an impressive burst onto the academic publishing scene.
But none of it was legitimate. The researcher and their institution were fictional, created by researchers at New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi who were probing shady publishing practices. The publications were written by ChatGPT. And the citation numbers were bogus: Some came from the author excessively citing their own “work,” while 50 others had been purchased for $300 from a vendor offering a “citations booster service.”
This revelation sheds light on a disturbing trend in academia – the rise of fake scientists and the dangers of citation purchasing.
The Impact of Citation Manipulation
In academia, a researcher’s h-index and the number of citations they’ve garnered are often used for hiring and promotion decisions. This means that manipulation of citations can have real consequences for both individuals and institutions.
According to Jennifer Byrne, a cancer researcher at the University of Sydney who has studied problematic publications in the biomedical literature, “The capacity to purchase citations in bulk is a new and worrying development.” She goes on to say that this fabricated profile shows “extreme” tactics that can be employed to manipulate these metrics.
The researchers involved in this study declined to name the vendor responsible for offering citation purchasing services in order to avoid giving them more business. However, this only highlights the need for increased awareness and action to combat this issue.
The Study
The study was initiated by Yasir Zaki, a computer scientist at NYU Abu Dhabi, and his colleagues who noticed troubling patterns among real researchers. After analyzing the Google Scholar profiles of over 1.6 million scientists, they identified 1016 individuals who had experienced a suspiciously high increase in citations over a single year.
Further investigation led them to flag 114 scientists who had received more than 18 citations from a single paper – an uncommon occurrence even for established researchers. In one particularly egregious case, 90% of the references in a paper were found to cite one scientist’s publications. This paper was also published in a journal where the suspicious scientist serves as an editor.
The team also discovered that many of these suspicious citations came from low quality publications, including preprints which are not subject to peer review. Some of the citing publications didn’t even reference the researcher’s work in the main text, but simply added it to their reference list at the end.
Additionally, one of the authors involved in this manipulation had received numerous citations from papers hosted by an account on Research Gate – a social networking site for scientists. Further investigation revealed that this account was openly advertising citation purchasing services.
The Dangers of Citation Purchasing
This study highlights the dangers of citation purchasing and its potential impact on academic publishing and research integrity. Not only does it undermine the credibility of scientific literature, but it also has real-world consequences for individuals and institutions.
It is important for both researchers and publishers to be aware of these fraudulent practices and take necessary steps to prevent them. As consumers of scientific information, we must also be vigilant and critically evaluate sources before citing them or using them as evidence in our own work.
The rise of fake scientists and the ease of manipulating citations is a concerning trend that must be addressed in order to maintain the integrity and credibility of academic research. Let us all do our part in promoting ethical and honest practices in the pursuit of knowledge.
Reference: https://www.science.org/content/article/vendor-offering-citations-purchase-latest-bad-actor-scholarly-publishing
Author: Katie Langin
