Editing Citation (section)

== Issues ==
{{see also|Impact factor#Editorial policies that affect the impact factor}}In their research on footnotes in scholarly journals in the field of communication, Michael Bugeja and Daniela V. Dimitrova have found that citations to online sources have a rate of decay (as cited pages are taken down), which they call a "half-life", that renders footnotes in those journals less useful for scholarship over time.<ref>Bugeja, Michael and Daniela V. Dimitrova (2010). ''Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age''. Duluth, Minnesota: Litwin Books. {{ISBN|978-1-936117-14-7}}</ref>

Other experts have found that published replications do not have as many citations as original publications.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Raymond Hubbard and J. Scott Armstrong |year=1994 |title=Replications and Extensions in Marketing: Rarely Published But Quite Contrary |url=http://cogprints.org/5199/1/Replications-and-Extensions-in-Marketing.pdf |journal=International Journal of Research in Marketing |s2cid-access=free |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=233–248 |doi=10.1016/0167-8116(94)90003-5 |s2cid=18205635 |access-date=2017-11-01 |archive-date=2017-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922010807/http://cogprints.org/5199/1/Replications%2Dand%2DExtensions%2Din%2DMarketing.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Another important issue is citation errors, which often occur due to carelessness on either the researcher or journal editor's part in the publication procedure.<ref>Peoples N, Østbye T, Yan LL. "Burden of proof: combating inaccurate citation in biomedical literature". ''BMJ''. 2023 Nov 6;383. {{doi|10.1136/bmj-2023-076441}}.</ref> For example, a study that analyzed 1,200 randomly selected citations from three major business ethics journals concluded that an average article contains at least three plagiarized citations when authors copy and paste a citation entry from another publication without consulting the original source.<ref name="Serenko2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Serenko |first1=A. |last2=Dumay |first2=J. |last3=Hsiao |first3=P-C.K. |last4=Choo |first4=C.W. |date=2021 |title=Do They Practice What They Preach? The Presence of Problematic Citations in Business Ethics Research |url=http://www.aserenko.com/papers/Serenko_Do_They_Practice.pdf |journal=Journal of Documentation |volume=77 |issue=6 |pages=1304–1320 |doi=10.1108/JD-01-2021-0018 |s2cid=237823862 |access-date=2021-10-19 |archive-date=2021-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023193000/http://www.aserenko.com/papers/Serenko_Do_They_Practice.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Experts have found that simple precautions, such as consulting the author of a cited source about proper citations, reduce the likelihood of citation errors and thus increase the quality of research.<ref name="Wright2008">{{Cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Malcolm |last2=Armstrong |first2=J.&nbsp;Scott |author-link2=J. Scott Armstrong |date=2008 |title=The Ombudsman: Verification of Citations: Fawlty Towers of Knowledge? |journal=Interfaces |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=125–139 |doi=10.1287/inte.1070.0317 |issn=0092-2102 |eissn=1526-551X |jstor=25062982 |oclc=5582131729 |ssrn=1941335 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Another study noted that approximately 25% citations do not support the claims made, a finding that affects many disciplines, including history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cumberledge |first1=Aaron |last2=Smith |first2=Neal |last3=Riley |first3=Benjamin W. |date=2023-08-01 |title=Unverified history: an analysis of quotation accuracy in leading history journals |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04755-w |journal=Scientometrics |language=en |volume=128 |issue=8 |pages=4677–4687 |doi=10.1007/s11192-023-04755-w |s2cid=259519993 |issn=1588-2861}}</ref>

Research suggests the impact of an article can be, partly, explained by superficial factors and not only by the scientific merits of an article.<ref>Bornmann, L., & Daniel, H. D. (2008). What do citation counts measure? A review of studies on citing behavior. Journal of Documentation, 64(1), 45–80.</ref> Field-dependent factors are usually listed as an issue to be tackled not only when comparisons across disciplines are made, but also when different fields of research of one discipline are being compared.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Anauati |first1=Maria Victoria |last2=Galiani |first2=Sebastian |last3=Gálvez |first3=Ramiro H. |date=November 4, 2015 |title=Quantifying the Life Cycle of Scholarly Articles Across Fields of Economic Research |ssrn=2523078 |journal=Economic Inquiry |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=1339–1355}}</ref> For example, in medicine, among other factors, the number of authors, the number of references, the article length, and the presence of a colon in the title influence the impact; while in sociology the number of references, the article length, and title length are among the factors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=van Wesel |first1=M. |last2=Wyatt |first2=S. |last3=ten Haaf |first3=J. |year=2014 |title=What a difference a colon makes: how superficial factors influence subsequent citation |url=https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/files/894334/art_3A10.1007_2Fs11192_013_1154_x.pdf |journal=Scientometrics |volume=98 |issue=3 |pages=1601–1615 |doi=10.1007/s11192-013-1154-x |s2cid=18553863 |hdl=20.500.11755/2fd7fc12-1766-4ddd-8f19-1d2603d2e11d |hdl-access=free |access-date=2019-07-11 |archive-date=2021-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126035317/https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/files/894334/art_3A10.1007_2Fs11192_013_1154_x.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Studies of methodological quality and reliability have found that "reliability of published research works in several fields may be decreasing with increasing journal rank".<ref name="Brembs2018">{{cite journal |last1=Brembs|first1=Björn|title=Prestigious Science Journals Struggle to Reach Even Average Reliability |journal=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |volume=12 |page=37 |year=2018 |pmid=29515380 |pmc=5826185 |doi=10.3389/fnhum.2018.00037 |doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Nature Index]] recognizes that citations remain a controversial and yet important metric for academics.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://go.nature.com/2TdWoM6 |title=Studies suggest 5 ways to increase citation counts |last=Crew |first=Bec |date=7 August 2019 |website=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] Index |access-date=20 August 2019 |archive-date=18 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218015207/https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/studies-research-five-ways-increase-citation-counts |url-status=live }}</ref> They report five ways to increase citation counts: (1) watch the title length and punctuation;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hudson |first=John |year=2016 |title=An analysis of the titles of papers submitted to the UK REF in 2014: authors, disciplines, and stylistic details |journal=[[Scientometrics]] |volume=109 |issue=2 |pages=871–889 |doi=10.1007/s11192-016-2081-4 |pmc=5065898 |pmid=27795594}}</ref> (2) release the results early as preprints;<ref>{{Cite bioRxiv |biorxiv=10.1101/673665 |first1=Nicholas |last1=Fraser |first2=Fakhri |last2=Momeni |title=The effect of bioRxiv preprints on citations and altmetrics |first3=Philipp |last3=Mayr |first4=Isabell |last4=Peters |year=2019}}</ref> (3) avoid referring to a country in the title, abstract, or keywords;<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abramo |first1=Giovanni |last2=D'Angelo |first2=Ciriaco Andrea |last3=Di Costa |first3=Flavia |year=2016 |title=The effect of a country's name in the title of a publication on its visibility and citability |journal=[[Scientometrics]] |volume=109 |issue=3 |pages=1895–1909 |arxiv=1810.12657 |doi=10.1007/s11192-016-2120-1|s2cid=4354082 }}</ref> (4) link the article to supporting data in a repository;<ref>{{Cite journal|arxiv=1907.02565 |first1=Giovanni |last1=Colavizza |first2=Iain |last2=Hrynaszkiewicz |title=The citation advantage of linking publications to research data |first3=Isla |last3=Staden |first4=Kirstie |last4=Whitaker |first5=Barbara |last5=McGillivray |journal=PLOS ONE |year=2019|volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=e0230416 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0230416 |pmid=32320428 |pmc=7176083 |bibcode=2020PLoSO..1530416C |doi-access=free }}</ref> and (5) avoid hyphens in the titles of research articles.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhou |first1=Zhi Quan |last2=Tse |first2=T.H. |last3=Witheridge |first3=Matt |year=2021 |title=Metamorphic robustness testing: Exposing hidden defects in citation statistics and journal impact factors |journal=[[IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering]] |volume=47 |issue=6 |pages=1164–1183 |doi=10.1109/TSE.2019.2915065|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Citation patterns are also known to be affected by unethical behavior of both the authors and journal staff. Such behavior is called impact factor boosting and was reported to involve even the top-tier journals. Specifically the high-ranking journals of medical science, including ''The Lancet'', ''JAMA'' and ''The New England Journal of Medicine'', are thought to be associated with such behavior, with up to 30% of citations to these journals being generated by commissioned opinion articles.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heneberg |first=P. |year=2014 |title=Parallel Worlds of Citable Documents and Others: Inflated Commissioned Opinion Articles Enhance Scientometric Indicators |journal=Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology |volume=65 |issue=3 |page=635 |doi=10.1002/asi.22997 |s2cid=3165853 |url=https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.22997 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2021-06-20 |archive-date=2021-06-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202227/https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.22997 |url-status=live }}</ref> On the other hand, the phenomenon of citation cartels is rising. Citation cartels are defined as groups of authors that cite each other disproportionately more than they do other groups of authors who work on the same subject.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fister |first1=I. Jr. |last2=Fister |first2=I. |last3=Perc |first3=M. |year=2016 |title=Toward the Discovery of Citation Cartels in Citation Networks |journal=Frontiers in Physics |volume=4 |pages=49 |bibcode=2016FrP.....4...49F |doi=10.3389/fphy.2016.00049 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Citation Politics===
Another issue is citation politics, which describes how citation shapes power structures by dictating the legitimacy of published authors and their work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Perkins-White |first=Amy |title=Library Guides: Citation politics : Getting Started |url=https://unimelb.libguides.com/citation-politics |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=unimelb.libguides.com |language=en}}</ref> As ideas are frequently reproduced through citation, they accrue increasing intellectual value.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kim |first=Annabel L. |date=2020 |title=The Politics of Citation |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/dia.2020.0016 |journal=Diacritics |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=4–9 |doi=10.1353/dia.2020.0016 |issn=1080-6539}}</ref> Research suggests that the number of times that an academic article gets cited has a direct impact on the author’s academic prestige and recognition, promotion opportunities, and potential impact in their respective fields.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Christen A. |last2=Garrett‐Scott |first2=Dominique |date=2021-04-05 |title=“We are not named”: Black women and the politics of citation in anthropology |url=https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12038 |journal=Feminist Anthropology |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=18–37 |doi=10.1002/fea2.12038 |issn=2643-7961}}</ref> The [[Matthew effect|Matthew Effect]] and [[Matilda effect|Matilda Effect]] describe phenomena to this effect.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ray |first=Keisha S. |last2=Zurn |first2=Perry |last3=Dworkin |first3=Jordan D. |last4=Bassett |first4=Dani S. |last5=Resnik |first5=David B. |date=2022-08-18 |title=Citation bias, diversity, and ethics |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2022.2111257 |journal=Accountability in Research |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=158–172 |doi=10.1080/08989621.2022.2111257 |issn=0898-9621}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Kwon |first=Diana |date=2022-03-22 |title=The rise of citational justice: how scholars are making references fairer |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00793-1 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=603 |issue=7902 |pages=568–571 |doi=10.1038/d41586-022-00793-1}}</ref>

However, evidence indicates that external factors may influence the likelihood of a paper getting cited.<ref name=":1" /> For example, citation counts have been shown to favor researchers from the Global North and thus can undervalue researchers from the Global South and from minority communities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lazarus |first=Suleman |date=2024-12-05 |title=An Autoethnographic Perspective on Scholarly Impact, Citation Politics, and North–South Power Dynamics |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2024.2430666 |journal=Life Writing |pages=1–27 |doi=10.1080/14484528.2024.2430666 |issn=1448-4528}}</ref> In addition, male names tend to get cited disproportionately more frequently than female names.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosa |first=Fernanda R. |last2=Anastácio |first2=Kimberly |last3=Pereira de Jesus |first3=Maria Vitoria |last4=Veras |first4=Hemanuel Jhosé A. |date=June 2024 |title=Citation politics: The gender gap in internet governance |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2024.102734 |journal=Telecommunications Policy |volume=48 |issue=5 |pages=102734 |doi=10.1016/j.telpol.2024.102734 |issn=0308-5961|doi-access=free }}</ref> Smith and Garrett-Scott have also argued that black women in the anthropological field are rarely ever cited by non-black women.<ref name=":0" />

Researchers have suggested combating inequality in citation politics with the use of a Citation Diversity Statement, a statement that would include the proportions of citations used in a scholarly article in terms of gender, race, and/or ethnicity.<ref name=":1" /> Another option is the formation of campaigns like #CiteBlackWomen that promote awareness of citational disparity.<ref name=":1" />