Guest Author – Azizul Haque
Assistant Professor, Yeungnam University.
In today’s world, the most common (albeit controversial) way to measure a researcher’s credibility or success in research is by their citation count. This number serves as a crucial indicator for university recruitment, promotion, or determining research grants. However, a recent study has revealed a startling reality: on popular platforms like Google Scholar, it’s quite easy to artificially increase your citation count through fraudulent means.
In a published paper, researchers Hazem Ibrahim, Fengyuan Liu, Yasir Zaki, and Talal Rahwan analyzed nearly 1.6 million Google Scholar profiles and shared findings that have shaken the world of academia. They showed that an active “citation boosting” system exists on Google Scholar, through which researchers can intentionally increase their citation count on their profiles without any real barriers.
The most alarming discovery is that when researchers approached a citation-selling service under a pseudonym (posing as a fake author), they were easily able to purchase 50 citations for a small fee. This effectively demonstrated that not only is it possible to inflate citation numbers on Google Scholar through fraud, but it is, in fact, a very simple process.
Even more surprising is the fact that faculty and researchers at many of the world’s top universities use Google Scholar’s citation count as the main metric for evaluating a researcher’s merit. Yet, the platform’s security and verification process are so weak that any user can easily add unsolicited citations to their profile and boost their standing.
This study raises a profoundly important question for us:
“Should a researcher’s merit be assessed solely by their citation count?”
Note: Collected from Facebook:——–
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19wvhkJU6u/
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