Citations: A flawed measure of scientific quality

View profile for zahir Al Ghusaini

Sultanate of Oman, Muscat

"Citations: Between Quality and Manipulation" Citations are widely regarded as a key indicator of the quality and scholarly impact of scientific research. However, this quantitative metric does not necessarily capture the true scientific value of a study. While a high citation count is often assumed to reflect a researcher's influence and contribution to advancing knowledge in their field, certain practices have emerged that compromise the objectivity of this measure. Among these are reciprocal citation arrangements between scholars, frequently aimed at inflating performance metrics to secure promotions or enhance institutional rankings. To mitigate such distortions, practical measures can be adopted. These include reducing the emphasis on citation counts as a primary criterion for academic evaluation—thus preventing the scholarly community from being misled by research of limited value—and implementing robust deterrents to curb the manipulation of citations among researchers.

ali algaithi

English Lecturer @ Sohar University | Master of Applied Linguistics

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You raise a very important point. Some researchers, in 15 or 20 years, had normal citations, but after they moved to GCC, the number of citations suddenly increased, maybe tenfold. My question now is why his or her citations in Google Scholar for 15 or 18 years were normal and suddenly increased to 1000-1500 citations per year after moving to GCC. Another point is that these days many researchers are publishing articles about other countries. What I mean is that they work in Country X but they publish about Country W. My question is, if this researcher gets a salary from Country X, why doesn't he or she publish about Country X? I believe we need more rules and regulations.

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