Citation manipulation through citation mills and pre-print servers

Area of Science:

• Bibliometrics
• Scholarly Communication
• Research Integrity

Background:

• Citations are a key metric in evaluating scientists' careers.
• Previous research has explored self-citation and citation cartels.
• The possibility of purchasing citations remains largely unexamined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prevalence and methods of citation fraud on Google Scholar.
• To assess the use of Google Scholar in academic evaluations.
• To determine if citations can be bought.

Main Methods:

• Compiled a dataset of approximately 1.6 million Google Scholar profiles.
• Surveyed faculty at highly-ranked universities regarding Google Scholar usage.
• Engaged a citation-boosting service to purchase citations for a fictional author.

Main Results:

• Confirmed widespread use of Google Scholar for evaluating scientists.
• Successfully purchased 50 citations for a fictional author via a third-party service.
• Identified new avenues for citation manipulation.

Conclusions:

• Citation fraud by purchasing citations is a viable, albeit unethical, practice.
• The findings highlight significant vulnerabilities in current academic evaluation systems.
• There is a critical need to develop more robust methods for assessing scientific merit beyond citation counts.