A Serbian study claims to have uncovered a ‘citation cartel’ in which two Bosnian journals listed by Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports are practicing an ‘alarming level of misconduct’ with ‘substantial involvement of large groups of authors from Serbia’.

…

The researchers found that the journals’ impact factors ‘comes entirely from self-citations, their mutual citations exchange and citations delivered by Serbian authors’. They also say that a large number of these citations are either unjustifiable or fabricated. The report’s author Pero Šipka, head of CEON, also adds that malpractice has been perpetuated by authors from several Serbian institutions, who benefit professionally by publishing in those journals.

Read the full article in Chemistry World

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Mićo Tatalović

Science journalist, news editor at Research Professional News

Mićo Tatalović is a news editor at Research Professional News. He has previously worked as a science news editor at Nature, New Scientist, and SciDev.Net. In 2018, he completed the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, US, where he researched the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence in science journalism. He is also immediate former chairman of the Association of British Science Writers, and a board member of the European Federation for Science Journalism.

He runs the section Balkan Science Beat.

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