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Accommodating coercion: Authors, editors, and citations

Author

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  • Fong, Eric A.
  • Patnayakuni, Ravi
  • Wilhite, Allen W.

Abstract

Some editors try to artificially inflate their journals' citation count by coercing authors, telling them to add citations referencing their journal even though the review process did not identify any bibliographical shortcomings. However, coercing authors for citations does not, by itself, inflate a journal's citation count; for coercion to be effective, authors must comply with the editor's demands and add those superfluous citations. In this study, we suggest that editors might use their publication authority to sort by or motivate compliance by accepting manuscripts of authors who acquiesce and rejecting studies by those who do not. Data was collected by conducting a survey of academics and includes responses of over 1000 scholars who have been coerced, our results suggest that acquiescence is positively associated with the publication decision, authors who added the coerced citations report significantly greater publication success than those who resist. In addition, we find that authors who acquiesce to coercion also report being more likely to submit to coercive journals in the future and to add superfluous, journal-specific citations before submitting manuscripts. We close with a brief discussion about the ethics of coercion and policy changes that can help reduce these abuses.

Suggested Citation

  • Fong, Eric A. & Patnayakuni, Ravi & Wilhite, Allen W., 2023. "Accommodating coercion: Authors, editors, and citations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:52:y:2023:i:5:s0048733323000380
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104754
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wilhite, Allen & Fong, Eric A. & Wilhite, Seth, 2019. "The influence of editorial decisions and the academic network on self-citations and journal impact factors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1513-1522.
    2. Björk, Bo-Christer & Solomon, David, 2013. "The publishing delay in scholarly peer-reviewed journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 914-923.
    3. Hopp, Christian & Hoover, Gary A., 2017. "How prevalent is academic misconduct in management research?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 73-81.
    4. Charles F Hickman & Eric A Fong & Allen W Wilhite & Yeolan Lee, 2019. "Academic misconduct and criminal liability: Manipulating academic journal impact factors," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(5), pages 661-667.
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