"Intrigued by a citation-boosting service that we unravelled during our investigation, we contacted the service while undercover as a fictional author, and managed to purchase 50 citations. These findings provide conclusive evidence that citations can be bought in bulk, and highlight the need to look beyond citation counts."
Update. " 'The capacity to purchase citations in bulk is a new and worrying development,' says Jennifer Byrne, a cancer researcher at the University of Sydney who has studied problematic publications in the biomedical literature…A researcher’s h-index and the number of citations they’ve garnered are often used for hiring and promotion decisions." https://www.science.org/content/article/vendor-offering-citations-purchase-latest-bad-actor-scholarly-publishing
The new system "will no longer consider only the impact factor [#JIF] of the journals in which scientists publish…And in an attempt to reduce the level of public funds being spent on publication costs, assessors will take into account papers published on noncommercial, #OpenAccess publishing platforms that don’t charge author fees [#APCs], such as Open Research Europe."
Analysis of 10k peer reviews reveals that those for high-#ImpactFactor#journals pay more attention to Materials/Methods but less to Presentation/Reporting (those for low-#JIF journals emphasize solutions) @annasvrn@eggersnsf@ste_mueller &co #PLOSBiologyhttps://plos.io/45tDVzz
Update. "Most journals [make] minimal efforts to overcome language barriers. The impact factor of journals [#JIF] was negatively associated w/ adopting a number of inclusive policies…Ownership by a scientific society tended to have a positive association. Contrary to our expectations, the proportion of both #OpenAccess articles & editors based in non-English speaking countries did not have a major positive association w/ the adoption of linguistically inclusive policies." https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2840
Hill: It’s almost like being in an abusive relationship. You know it’s bad for you. You know you shouldn’t be involved with it, but yet you keep coming back for more.
Conboy: …Great comparison. Journal impact factor is like an abusive relationship that #academia has with itself. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Is this because there is no alternative?"