1. Sign our petition calling on Cochrane to withdraw their review of Exercise Therapy for CFS here.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Guest, the 'News in Brief' for the week beginning 15th April 2024 is here.
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Welcome! To read the Core Purpose and Values of our forum, click here.
    Dismiss Notice

Elsevier investigates hundreds of peer reviewers for manipulating citations

Discussion in 'Research methodology news and research' started by Andy, Sep 11, 2019.

Tags:
  1. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

    Messages:
    21,953
    Location:
    Hampshire, UK
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02639-9
     
    Andy, Sep 11, 2019
    #1
    Sly Saint, DokaGirl, Mij and 13 others like this.
  2. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    13,507
    Location:
    London, UK
    Why don't they remove the citations and blacklist the reviewers?

    This practice has been going on ever since I have been in science. The easiest way to tell who has reviewed your paper is by what papers they require you to cite in order to satisfy their comments. It happened to me a couple of weeks ago. It happens all the time. If publishers have just woken up to this...
     
    Jonathan Edwards, Sep 11, 2019
    #2
    Sly Saint, Mithriel, DokaGirl and 15 others like this.
  3. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    52,320
    Location:
    UK
    What can the papers' authors do when that happens? If they refuse to cite the papers, does the reviewer put in a bad review? It sounds like blackmail.
     
    Trish, Sep 11, 2019
    #3
    DokaGirl, Snowdrop, Mij and 8 others like this.
  4. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    13,507
    Location:
    London, UK
    It is blackmail. If you refuse to cite a paper the reviewer just says he thinks that changes are not adequate and recommends rejection. A good editor can keep tabs on that sort of behaviour but the author has no way of knowing whose side the editor is on.

    I am now lucky that my salary does not depend on publishing so last time around I just said that I could not see any point in citing the papers I was told I should cite. I explained why they did not alter our position and also suggested that they might not be representative of the field. The reviewer is likely to have been cross, but the editor is quite likely to have been on my side since I am an unpaid book review editor for his journal!!
     
    Jonathan Edwards, Sep 11, 2019
    #4
    Mithriel, DokaGirl, pteropus and 12 others like this.
  5. Adrian

    Adrian Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    6,486
    Location:
    UK
    I think it is quite subject dependent. I've seen it happen when economists have reviewed papers but not from computer scientists.

    I wondered if it was considered normal in some subjects.
     
    Adrian, Sep 11, 2019
    #5
    DokaGirl, MeSci, ladycatlover and 3 others like this.

Share This Page