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(Volume: 3, Issue: 6)
Is Self-Citation Ethical Or Illegitimate?
Are you a researcher with more publications in hand and ready to cite them in your own future research? Then, it is called self-citation. However, is it a good practice to make self-citation? If it is good, when does self-citing a research publication turn into an illegitimate offence? What are the consequences of illegitimate self-citation on the researcher? What should be done to maintain an ethical self-citation?
Let’s have a glimpse at it...
Self-citation- A good practice
Generally, citations are very necessary for establishing the research being conducted as loyal with impactful findings in a research domain, compared to its precursors. Further, the citations will only promote research integrity and encourage further research in that particular research field. It is very true that citing one’s own research in his/her impending research too harvests the same benefits. Indeed, it portrays a cluster of relevant research made by the researcher in a single shot to the reader, making him/ her to understand the research notion along with the associated jargons, which took years to accomplish. It is actually helpful, when the researcher intends to publish his/ her research in a journal with a narrow scope or which has wider non- English-speaking readers. Furthermore, self-citation increases the author metrics like, h-index, g-index or i10-index, increasing the researcher’s reputation in academics and enabling them to make career advancements.
Self-citation- Illegitimate
The self-citation usage, though seeming as a good practice in view of the researchers, are gradually turning out to be unethical and illegitimate in perspective of their respective research community or the journal in which they desire to publish their research. There are three primary reasons for this change and they are as follows:
(i) The authors’ increased thirst for citation count: Nowadays, so many researchers are showing much interest towards promoting their reputation or career with the increase in their author metrics, especially deploying self-citation as the key to achieve this goal. While doing so, the researchers fail to check the appropriateness of the cited article to the conducted research and render the readers with ambiguity on the research plot.
(ii) Confinement of research towards an individual’s perspective: Self-citation is generally hoped to provide the readers with in-depth knowledge on the previously available relevant research made by a researcher himself/ herself. However, self-citing the relevant articles of the researcher alone will not end up in meaningful research. This is because the perspectives and the valuable findings of the other researchers, who are working in the same research domain, are blindly neglected. This fact simply denotes that the research has not been done with wider knowledge settings on the research notion and it is confined to the perspectives of the self-citing researcher alone.
(iii) The researcher’s unawareness: It is also possible for the researchers to self-cite their article inadvertently. In fact, with increased eagerness to cite all their articles in their own research, the researchers might be unaware of the worst consequences, which they might bring to research integrity.
Illegitimate self-citation- Consequences on the researcher
Citing their own articles in an intentional and illegitimate way not only disrupts the research quality or integrity, but also has serious consequences on the researcher himself/ herself. The first of it is the severe damage to his/ her reputation, depriving him/ her from further career progressions. The next consequence is on the trustworthiness on the author metrics that the researcher holds, which highly questions the significance or reach of the researcher’s contributions. Yet another consequence is the retraction of the researcher’s publications from refereed journals, due to the illicit citing of their own articles. In all, the researcher’s attempt to increase the citation counts by unethical means only ends up in futility.
Steps to achieve ethical self-citation
There are several steps that the researchers can abide by to put a stop to illegitimate self-citation and they are as follows:
Cite only the appropriate articles: The researcher should cite only the articles, which have significant impact on the current research
Carefully use the proper citation tools: This step is followed to refrain the researcher from inadvertent citing of his/her own articles, which might not be relevant to the current research. Few self-citation rates calculating tools, which can be used by the researchers are Pybliometrics API, Publish or Perish and Cited Reference Searching
Beware of the journal guidelines on self-citing an article: Each journal has its own self-citation rates for the researchers to follow based on its associated discipline, scope or language. Generally, most journals allow self-citation rate, ranging between 15% and 20%. Actually, a self-citation rate that falls beyond 50% or 55% will just prevent the article from being considered for publication in most refereed journals
Hence, The Research Seer’s Rationale on “Is Self-Citation Ethical Or Illegitimate?” is:
“Self-Citation Is Ethical, Until Research Integrity Is Effectively-Sustained”
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