Citation Ethics

The journal requires citations and references to be accurate, relevant, transparent, and used solely for legitimate scholarly purposes. References should enable readers to identify the sources on which statements, methods, data, interpretations, and conclusions are based and to place the reported research within the existing scientific literature.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and appropriateness of all references included in their manuscripts. References should support the statements to which they are linked and should not be included solely to increase citation counts or bibliometric indicators.

Authors should:

  • cite original research sources whenever reasonably possible;
  • ensure that each cited reference genuinely supports the statement or scientific context for which it is used;
  • represent the cited work accurately and avoid selective citation that materially distorts the existing evidence;
  • verify bibliographic information against reliable bibliographic databases or original sources;
  • cite relevant previous research regardless of the authors, institutions, journals, countries, or publishers involved;
  • appropriately cite datasets, protocols, methods, software, instruments, and other research resources when relevant;
  • clearly identify preprints as preprints when they are cited;
  • verify whether cited publications have been corrected, retracted, or otherwise subject to important post-publication notices;
  • avoid citing retracted articles as valid scientific evidence, except where the retraction itself or the history of the publication is directly relevant to the discussion.

ICMJE recommends direct citation of original research whenever possible, states that references must not be used by authors, editors, or reviewers to promote self-interest, and makes authors responsible for verifying that references accurately support the associated statements. It also advises authors to check whether references have been retracted.

Citation Manipulation

The journal does not permit citation manipulation, including practices designed primarily to increase the citation counts, CiteScore, Journal Impact Factor, h-index, individual author metrics, or other bibliometric indicators rather than to improve the scientific quality of the manuscript.

Unacceptable practices include:

  • excessive or irrelevant self-citation;
  • unnecessary citation of articles from the journal to which the manuscript is submitted;
  • requiring authors to cite publications by an editor, reviewer, Editorial Board member, or publisher without a valid scientific reason;
  • requesting citations primarily to increase the citation metrics of an individual, institution, journal, or publisher;
  • coordinated reciprocal citation arrangements between authors, research groups, journals, or institutions;
  • participation in citation cartels or other organized citation schemes;
  • adding references that are unrelated or only marginally related to the scientific claims being made;
  • deliberately omitting important relevant literature in order to create a misleading impression of novelty or priority.

COPE identifies coercive citation practices and coordinated arrangements between journals intended to increase citation indicators as forms of citation manipulation.

Self-Citation

Self-citation is not inherently inappropriate. Authors may cite their own previous work when it is directly relevant and scientifically necessary to understand the submitted study.

However, self-citation must not be excessive, irrelevant, or used primarily to increase an author’s citation indicators. The same principle applies to citations of the journal, institution, research group, editor, or reviewer.

There is no required minimum number or percentage of citations to articles published in the journal.

Responsibilities of Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers may recommend additional references when they are necessary to correct a factual omission, improve scientific context, identify relevant methodology, or ensure that important evidence is appropriately acknowledged.

Such recommendations must be based on scientific relevance, not on personal, institutional, commercial, or bibliometric interests.

Editors and reviewers must not:

  • require citation of their own publications without a clear scientific justification;
  • require unnecessary citations to the journal;
  • make manuscript acceptance conditional on adding irrelevant citations;
  • use the peer-review or editorial process to increase personal or journal citation metrics.

The final decision on whether a suggested reference is scientifically necessary remains part of the editorial evaluation and must be based on the relevance of the citation to the manuscript.

Web of Science specifically evaluates whether articles appropriately acknowledge the surrounding literature and considers irrelevant citations a potential sign of inadequate peer review or editorial oversight.

Preprints, Retracted Articles and AI-Generated Sources

When a preprint is cited, its status as a preprint must be clearly indicated.

Authors should verify the publication status of references before submission and, where appropriate, again during revision or proof preparation. Retracted material should not normally be cited as reliable evidence. If a retracted article must be discussed for scholarly reasons, its retracted status should be clearly identified.

AI-generated output should not be cited as a primary scientific source. Authors remain responsible for locating, reading, evaluating, and citing the original and reliable source that supports a scientific statement. This is consistent with the current ICMJE guidance that referencing AI-generated material as the primary source is not acceptable.

Citation Concerns and Editorial Action

Where potentially inappropriate citation practices are identified, the journal may request clarification, removal or replacement of irrelevant citations, verification of references, or revision of misleading statements.

Evidence of systematic or deliberate citation manipulation may be investigated as a potential breach of publication ethics.

Depending on the nature and seriousness of the case, the journal may:

  • require correction of the manuscript or reference list;
  • reject a manuscript;
  • remove inappropriate reviewer or editorial citation requests;
  • exclude a reviewer from further involvement in the manuscript;
  • investigate coordinated citation behaviour;
  • correct the published article;
  • take further action under the journal’s Research Misconduct or Corrections and Retractions policies where justified.

Citation-related decisions are based on scientific relevance and integrity rather than numerical citation thresholds.

ISSN 2181-3353 (Print)
ISSN 2181-3353 (Online)