Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A reviewer requires the author to cite eight of the reviewer's own loosely related papers as a condition of acceptance, with no explanation of how they strengthen the manuscript.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A reviewer recommending two specific citations that address a methodological gap, with a brief rationale for each, leaving the decision to the authors.
Editorial commentary
Coercive citation distorts journal impact factors and h-indices and breaches peer-review ethics. Wilhite and Fong (2012) documented the practice's prevalence in business and economics journals. COPE provides guidance for authors facing such requests and for editors responding to complaints; many publishers now monitor citation patterns by editorial board and require justification when reviewers request self-citations.
References
- Wilhite & Fong (2012) 'Coercive Citation in Academic Publishing', Science 335:542-543
- COPE Discussion Document: Citation Manipulation (2019)
Also known as
citation coercion · forced citation · reviewer coercion
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Coercive citation"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/coercive-citation" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"name": "Coercive citation",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/coercive-citation",
"description": "The practice by editors or reviewers of pressuring authors to add citations that are not scientifically warranted, typically to the journal or to the reviewer's own work, as a condition of acceptance. A request is coercive when no substantive scientific reason is given and the citations would not otherwise be added.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-integrity-and-misconduct/",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/coercive-citation",
"sameAs": [
"citation coercion",
"forced citation",
"reviewer coercion"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}
