Authorship and citation manipulation in academic research

Abstract

Some scholars add authors to their research papers or grant proposals even when those individuals contribute nothing to the research effort. Some journal editors coerce authors to add citations that are not pertinent to their work and some authors pad their reference lists with superfluous citations. How prevalent are these types of manipulation, why do scholars stoop to such practices, and who among us is most susceptible to such ethical lapses? This study builds a framework around how intense competition for limited journal space and research funding can encourage manipulation and then uses that framework to develop hypotheses about who manipulates and why they do so. We test those hypotheses using data from over 12,000 responses to a series of surveys sent to more than 110,000 scholars from eighteen different disciplines spread across science, engineering, social science, business, and health care. We find widespread misattribution in publications and in research proposals with significant variation by academic rank, discipline, sex, publication history, co-authors, etc. Even though the majority of scholars disapprove of such tactics, many feel pressured to make such additions while others suggest that it is just the way the game is played. The findings suggest that certain changes in the review process might help to stem this ethical decline, but progress could be slow.

Fig 1. Manipulation of authorship and citation across academia.

Percentage of respondents who report that honorary authors have been added to their research projects, they have been coerced by editor to add citations, or who have padded their citations, sorted by field of study and type of manipulation.

Fig 2. Reasons for adding honorary authors to grants and manuscripts.

Each pair of columns presents the percentage of responses who selected a particular reason for adding an honorary author to a manuscript or a grant proposal. Director refers to responses stating, “this individual was the director of the lab or facility used in the research.” Authority refers to responses stating, “this individual occupies a position of authority and can influence my career.” Mentor, “this is my mentor”; colleague, “this a colleague I wanted to help”; reciprocity, “I was included or expect to be included as a co-author on their work”; data, “they had data I needed”; reputation, “their reputation increases the chances of the work being published (or funded)”; funding, “they had funding we could apply to the research”; and reviewers, “the grant reviewers suggested we add co-authors.”

Fig 3. Disapproval of coercive citation by major academic group.

The first column in each cluster presents the percentage of respondents from each major academic group who either strongly agree or agree with the statement the coercive citations, “is inappropriate.” The second column is the percentage that agrees to, “[it] reduces the prestige of the journal.” The third column reflects agreement to, “are less likely to submit work to a journal that coerces.”