Peer reviewers more likely to approve articles that cite their own work
3 days ago
- #peer-review
- #academic-publishing
- #citation-practices
- Reviewers are more likely to approve a manuscript if their own work is cited in subsequent versions.
- The study analyzed 18,400 articles from four open access publications and found that cited reviewers had higher approval rates.
- Coercive citation, or requesting unnecessary citations, is considered poor practice and can make the peer-review process transactional.
- The study used data from four publishing platforms that make all article versions and reviewer comments publicly available.
- Reviewers who were cited in version 2 of an article had a 92% approval rate, compared to 76% for those not cited.
- Authors may include citations to avoid resistance and get their papers accepted, even if the citations are not fully justified.
- Reviewers who requested citations were more likely to use words like 'need' or 'please' in their comments, suggesting coercive language.
- Some researchers argue that citation requests can be legitimate to address issues, but concerns about unwarranted requests remain.