Citatometry is in Crisis, Corrected Number of Citations (iC) is a Life Vest

Editorial letter

Citatometry is in Crisis, Corrected Number of Citations (iC) is a Life Vest

Rajko Igić ^*

Academy of Sciences and Arts, Republika Srpska, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

*Corresponding Author: Rajko Igić, Academy of Sciences and Arts, Republika Srpska, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Citation: Igić R. (2023). Citatometry is in Crisis, Corrected Number of Citations (iC) is A Life Vest. Clinical Case Reports and Studies, BioRes Scientia Publishers. 3(6):1-2. DOI: 10.59657/2837-2565.brs.23.093

Copyright: © 2023 Rajko Igić, this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Received: December 07, 2023 | Accepted: December 20, 2023 | Published: December 28, 2023

Abstract

With the establishment of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), in 1964 in Philadelphia, the USA, Eugene Garfield introduced the citation indexing of the scientific literature, and his idea proposed in 1955 was realized by publishing the Science Citation Index (SCI).

Corrected number of citations (iC), total number of citations the publication received divided by the number of authors, may solve the ongoing crisis of both citatometry and scientometrics. It should be done by Clarivate, the company that continues work of the ISI.

Keywords: citatometry; citations; crisis; scientometrics

Editorial

SCI presents a new method for indexing and disseminating the world’s scientific literature. Today, Clarivate continues using this tool useful for scientists to get high-quality data. But at the same time, it is the basis for scientometrics, a new scientific field which evaluates the value of a single publication and scientific contribution of research groups, institutions, scientific journals, and science development in various countries. However, there is a question of reliability and validity of citations as performance indicators. In which contexts and for which purposes are they suitable? These are questions which have been debated over the past decades [1].

The problems with citing have been gradually accumulated. The best example presents the list of highly cited scientists (1 among 1000). It illustrates a crisis in citatometry. In 2023, there are 7,125 researchers in that group and we examined a sample article that was published in 2008 entitled "Recommendations for the treatment of arterial hypertension." This paper was cited 12,942 times. In addition to the two main authors, there are about 25 authors, four main reviewers and another fifty assistant reviewers in this paper. If we assume that each of the mentioned 90 authors of those recommendations have an equal share in the creation of the afore mentioned instruction, then each of the contributors would, in the best case, have 12,942 : 90 = 143 citations. However, automatic citation counting gave all 12,942 citations to each participant in the creation of that document. The problem of such hyper-citing has been noticed and it is important to improve the citatometry, in order to eliminate unnecessary acquisition of the entry of individuals among the so-called highly cited scientists because they easily obtain funding from science funds, gain other benefits and fame at the expense of other scientists. This occurs in environments that are unable to recognize the difference between the citations of scholars who research independently and those in small groups with those who easily gain a place among highly cited scholars.

This problem can be solved in the simple way mentioned above. Instead of coauthors being credited with the total number of citations the publication received, they should be given a reduced number of citations. When the total number of citations is divided by the number of authors of that article, the corrected number of citations (iC) is obtained. Decimal numbers do not count. [Acronyms: i-individual (and Igić, too); C-citations].

Corrected number of citations attributed to each author would lead to a fairer distribution of the total number of citations received for each publication. It can solve the ongoing crisis that is growing [2]. By applying this procedure, we shall bring multi-author citations closer to individual authors or equalize them. Such corrections will also reduce number of gift and guest authors present in many papers. The iC citations and their presentation should be done by the Clarivate.

References

Aksnes DW, Langfeld L, Wouters P. (2019). Citation indicators, and research quality: An overview of basic concepts and theories. SAGE Open, 9:1-17.
Publisher | Google Scholor
Igić R. (2023). Citati naučnih publikacija kao merilo uticaja. [Citations of scientific publications as a measure of impact]. Medici.com, 20:63-64.
Publisher | Google Scholor

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