Toward the discovery of citation cartels in citation networks
Open accessAbstract
In this perspective, our goal is to present and elucidate a thus far largely overlooked problem that is arising in scientific publishing, namely the identification and discovery of citation cartels in citation networks. Taking from the well-known definition of a community in the realm of network science, namely that people within a community share significantly more links with each other as they do outside of this community, we propose that citation cartels are defined as groups of authors that cite each other disproportionately more than they do other groups of authors that work on the same subject. Evidently, the identification of citation cartels is somewhat different, although similar to the identification of communities in networks. We systematically expose the problem, provide theoretical examples, and outline an algorithmic guide on how to approach the subject.
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Citation cartels explain relationships between citing and cited authors which are intended to increase the citedness of the citing authors' own papers.
“Thus, citation cartels explain relationships between citing and cited authors which are intended to increase the citedness of the citing authors' own papers (Fister Jr et al., 2016).”
From Core Elements in the Process of Citing Publications: Conceptual Overview of the Literature (2018) · cites this paper as Fister Jr et al., 2016
Citation cartels additionally explain relationships between editor and citing author and thus the corresponding inclusion of cited references in citing documents.
“Thus, citation cartels additionally explain relationships between editor and citing author (Fister Jr et al., 2016) and thus the corresponding inclusion of cited references in citing documents.”
From Core Elements in the Process of Citing Publications: Conceptual Overview of the Literature (2018) · cites this paper as Fister Jr et al., 2016
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References 21 · Cited by 149
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Fister I Jr, Mlakar U, Brest J, Fister I. A new population-based nature-inspired algorithm every month: is the current era coming to the end? In: StuCoSReC: Proceedings of the 2016 3rd Student Computer Science Research Conference. Koper: University of Primorskapp (2016). p. 33-37.
- Authors
- Fister, I., Fister, I., & Perc, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Maribor (SI)
- Corresponding author
- Perc, Matjaž
- ORCID
- Perc, Matjaž
- Venue
- Frontiers in Physics
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2016-12-15
- Volume
- 4
- ISSN
- 2296-424X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2566366613
- Cited by
- 149
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 7.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Physics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Maribor digital library (University of Maribor) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS (J1-7009, P5-0027)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Keywords
- citation cartels, citation networks, citation manipulation, scholarly publishing, community detection, citation fraud, algorithmic detection
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