v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack DStablev2026.2

Coercive citation

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.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

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

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Coercive citation"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/coercive-citation" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@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/"
}

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