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How citation distortions create unfounded authority: analysis of a citation network (2009) S A Greenberg

Discussion in 'Research methodology news and research' started by Luther Blissett, Oct 21, 2018.

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  1. Luther Blissett

    Luther Blissett Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I think people will be interested in this paper which shows a way of detecting and showing how citation bias can create unfounded authority. The parallels with the whole BPS network seem striking. I've often seen reference to how certain authors cite themselves.

    (emphasis added)

    https://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b2680
     
    Nellie, Esther12, JaimeS and 18 others like this.
  2. Barry

    Barry Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Having read your book @Brian Hughes, I'm guessing this might interest you, if you are not already aware of it. (I've not gone back to check if you reference this paper or not in the book, apologies if you did).
     
    MEMarge, Andy and Luther Blissett like this.
  3. Luther Blissett

    Luther Blissett Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I forgot to add it, but this seemed to me the most interesting finding

    This was the part that really struck me on original reading as being similar to our situation.
     
    Nellie, Snowdrop, MEMarge and 7 others like this.
  4. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The is quite cool @Luther Blissett. A bit like the inverted funnel plot - you may not be able to show one paper is crap but the whole load of papers reveals, without knowing it, a tell tale whiff of jiggery-pokery.
     
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  5. inox

    inox Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    So this is "how alzheimer research got it wrong for 20 years"...? *sigh*

    There's no self correcting in science, if one ignores the evidence correcting you... Sounds way to familiar. :-/
     
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  6. NelliePledge

    NelliePledge Moderator Staff Member

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    @dave30th in case you’ve not seen this thread
     
  7. Joel

    Joel Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Cool. Would love to see such an analysis of CFS research.
     
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  8. Barry

    Barry Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Puts me in mind of The Lord of the Flies. With no well grounded datum, moralities tend to float and evolve according to group inclinations.
     
    MEMarge, Nellie and Luther Blissett like this.
  9. JaimeS

    JaimeS Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Saaammme.

    Though I expect we'd see it on the biomedical side, too, though not half so glaringly.

    The effect of having a small sample size of studies to choose from is probably notable.
     
    andypants, MEMarge, Nellie and 3 others like this.

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