IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v101y2014i3d10.1007_s11192-014-1275-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Scientists’ referencing (mis)behavior revealed by the dissemination network of referencing errors

Author

Listed:
  • Liming Liang

    (Henan Normal University)

  • Zhen Zhong

    (Henan University of Technology)

  • Ronald Rousseau

    (University of Antwerp (UA), IOIW-IBW
    KU Leuven)

Abstract

This study illustrates scientists’ referencing (mis)behavior by structuring the dissemination network of referencing errors. The sample set consists of 16,622 referencing errors of a highly cited paper published by Laemmli, UK in Nature in 1970. Dissemination networks of thirteen types of volume-page double errors and one type of page-only error are constructed and analyzed. Focusing on papers which carry the same volume-page double error, or the same page error, the citing-cited relationship between any two of them was identified and author bylines were compared to find common author(s). Our investigation results in three disseminating routes of referencing errors. Route 1: Citing a paper and copying its reference; Route 2: Copying a reference from another paper but without citing this paper; Route 3: Copying references from an earlier paper published by the author himself (herself) without rechecking the accuracy of the reference. The first two routes reflect scientists’ referencing misbehavior while the third calls attention to self-copying of references.

Suggested Citation

  • Liming Liang & Zhen Zhong & Ronald Rousseau, 2014. "Scientists’ referencing (mis)behavior revealed by the dissemination network of referencing errors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(3), pages 1973-1986, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:101:y:2014:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-014-1275-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-014-1275-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-014-1275-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-014-1275-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James K. Wetterer, 2006. "Quotation error, citation copying, and ant extinctions in Madeira," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 67(3), pages 351-372, June.
    2. Mikhail V. Simkin & Vwani P. Roychowdhury, 2007. "A mathematical theory of citing," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 58(11), pages 1661-1673, September.
    3. M. V. Simkin & V. P. Roychowdhury, 2005. "Stochastic modeling of citation slips," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 62(3), pages 367-384, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shirley Ainsworth & Jane M. Russell, 2018. "Has hosting on science direct improved the visibility of Latin American scholarly journals? A preliminary analysis of data quality," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(3), pages 1463-1484, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bruno S. Frey & Katja Rost, 2010. "Do rankings reflect research quality?," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 13, pages 1-38, May.
    2. Bramoullé, Yann & Currarini, Sergio & Jackson, Matthew O. & Pin, Paolo & Rogers, Brian W., 2012. "Homophily and long-run integration in social networks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(5), pages 1754-1786.
    3. S. R. Goldberg & H. Anthony & T. S. Evans, 2015. "Modelling citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 1577-1604, December.
    4. Clough, James R. & Evans, Tim S., 2016. "What is the dimension of citation space?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 448(C), pages 235-247.
    5. Katja Rost & Bruno S. Frey, 2011. "Quantitative and Qualitative Rankings of Scholars," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 63(1), pages 63-91, January.
    6. Martin Ricker, 2017. "Letter to the Editor: About the quality and impact of scientific articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1851-1855, June.
    7. Gabrielle Demange, 2012. "On the influence of a ranking system," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 39(2), pages 431-455, July.
    8. James K. Wetterer, 2006. "Quotation error, citation copying, and ant extinctions in Madeira," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 67(3), pages 351-372, June.
    9. Tol, Richard S.J., 2013. "The Matthew effect for cohorts of economists," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 522-527.
    10. Xie, Zheng & Ouyang, Zhenzheng & Liu, Qi & Li, Jianping, 2016. "A geometric graph model for citation networks of exponentially growing scientific papers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 456(C), pages 167-175.
    11. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    12. Waltman, Ludo & van Eck, Nees Jan & Wouters, Paul, 2013. "Counting publications and citations: Is more always better?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 635-641.
    13. Christian Borghesi & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, 2007. "Of songs and men: a model for multiple choice with herding," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 557-568, August.
    14. Inoue, Masaaki & Pham, Thong & Shimodaira, Hidetoshi, 2020. "Joint estimation of non-parametric transitivity and preferential attachment functions in scientific co-authorship networks," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3).
    15. Werner Marx & Lutz Bornmann, 2014. "Tracing the origin of a scientific legend by reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS): the legend of the Darwin finches," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(3), pages 839-844, June.
    16. Pawel Sobkowicz, 2011. "Simulations of opinion changes in scientific communities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(2), pages 233-250, May.
    17. Sangwal, Keshra, 2013. "Comparison of different mathematical functions for the analysis of citation distribution of papers of individual authors," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 36-49.
    18. Kåre Letrud & Sigbjørn Hernes, 2019. "Affirmative citation bias in scientific myth debunking: A three-in-one case study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-8, September.
    19. Martin Ho & Henry CW Price & Tim S Evans & Eoin O'Sullivan, 2023. "Order in Innovation," Papers 2302.13076, arXiv.org.
    20. Gabrielle Demange, 2011. "On the influence of rankings," PSE Working Papers halshs-00589657, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:101:y:2014:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-014-1275-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.