The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), a Spanish university, has published a study that analyses the discrimination reportedly existing in citations of scientific articles. Why some scientists choose a given citation and not others to include in the references of their scientific writings is an issue which is not completely resolved, says the study. Published in the Journal of the American Society for Information, Science and Technology, the study was carried out by María del Mar Camacho Miñano and Manuel Núñez Níckel of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and the UC3M, respectively.
Citations in science are important as a mechanism to follow the evolution of science. They are employed as an indicator of the importance of scientists and institutions: the higher the number of citations of an article, the greater is its recognition. This measure of success implies increased sources of funding, recognition, salaries, etc. According to Camacho Miñano and Núñez Nickel, the problem arises when the authors, instead of altruistically choosing original sources which facilitate the ideas on which their reasoning is constructed, cite because of spurious interests. The aim in such a situation is to increase the possibility of successfully publishing in the scientific journals.
Such discrimination can be summarised in three fundamental aspects: personal characteristics of the author (for example, sex, race, where doctorate was obtained, current or previous affiliation, if the author forms part of the editorial staff of some journal, etc.); characteristics of the article (methodology utilised, number of pages, if it is a bibliographic recompilation, etc.); and finally, type or nature of the journal (journals with a higher degree of impact tend to be cited).
With the systems of control that exist at present (double-blind review) it is difficult to control this type of behaviour, according to the authors of this study. Moreover, the reviewers and editors could be accentuating this behaviour by advising them to cite journals with a certain degree of impact or certain authors.
The researchers point out a partial solution to this problem. The editor of the journal should give clear guidelines for the reviewers to follow, so that the moment that they are aware that this type of discrimination exists, they eradicate it at the grass roots level.
Ordering diverse ideas existing in a broad range of literature, the study seeks to put in place the different steps in selecting citations. In this sense, ‘an author cannot permit herself to not know the most relevant sources if she wishes to have a certain trustworthiness within her area’, Nuñez Nickel explained. However, when deciding which authors to cite, if various articles cover the same needs, the author may be inclined for those which are similar to her reviewers of certain journals, full professors from institutions which interest her, etc. “This could be one of the reasons why “quality” schools appear as opposed to those which offer original ideas”, he said.
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