Citations are the currency of academia. Scholars who manage to gain a lot of them are more likely to get promoted, more likely to win prestigious awards and more likely to win the respect of their peers. An academic with a lot of citations is kind of like a City banker with a large end-of-year bonus – a big deal.
Given the importance attached to citation counts, scholars have an incentive to boost theirs by any means necessary. One practice that has received significant attention is self-citations. This is where individuals make a disproportionate number of citations to their own work. Another, related phenomenon is citation cartels. These refer to groups of individuals who agree to make a disproportionate number of citations to each other’s work.
Individuals who boost their citation counts through underhand practices obviously gain an unfair advantage over those who play by the rules. Hence there is considerable interest in detecting such practices, which are collectively termed ‘citation manipulation’.
In an interesting new paper, Hazem Ibrahim and colleagues investigate citation manipulation by analysing a dataset of 1.6 million Google scholar profiles. They find evidence that some individuals are indeed gaming the system. And they outline a method for identifying potentially suspicious individuals.
To look for evidence of citation manipulation, the authors began by filtering the dataset for individuals who saw large spikes in their citation counts in a particular year. They then zoomed-in further by identifying five individuals who received a large percentage of their citations from just a few papers that each cited them many times. These five individuals were deemed ‘suspicious’.
To check for evidence of citation manipulation, Ibrahim and colleagues compared the suspicious individuals to individuals who were similar in terms of field of research, year of first publication and total number of citations.
They began by computing the number of citations individuals in each group received in their peak citation year on Google Scholar and on Scopus (the latter only indexes journals that have been approved by an advisory board). They found that the matched individuals’ citation counts were only 45% lower on Scopus, whereas the suspicious individuals’ counts were 96% lower. This means that in the years when suspicious individuals saw large spikes in their citation counts, most of these citations came from journals not indexed by Scopus.
The authors proceeded to compute the number of citations individuals in each group received in the ten papers in which they were cited most. They found that the matched individuals were cited no more than 15 times in such papers, whereas the suspicious individuals were cited up to 45 times. This means that suspicious individuals received an excessive number of citations from a small number of papers.
Ibrahim and colleagues then propose a method for identifying potentially suspicious individuals, which involves computing two quantities for a certain individual.
The first is the ‘citation concentration’ or c2-index, defined as the largest number n such that there are n papers that each cite the individual at least n times. For example, if there are 10 papers that each cite the individual at least 10 times, they would have a c2 index of 10. The second quantity is the c2 percentage, defined as the percentage of the individual’s total citations that are accounted for by the n papers. For example, if 50% of the individual’s total citations are from the 10 papers, they would have a c2 percentage of 50.
The chart below shows the distribution of 900 individuals across dimensions corresponding to the two preceding quantities. The five suspicious individuals are highlighted in red. As you can see, most individuals are concentrated in the lower left-hand corner. By contrast, the five suspicious individuals are all located in the upper right-hand area. This discrepancy makes it very unlikely that all their citations are genuine.
In the final part of their paper, the authors demonstrate that it is possible to boost one’s citation count on Google Scholar by creating AI-generated papers that include larger numbers of citations to one’s work and then posting those papers on preprint servers. They also demonstrate that it is possible to pay to have one’s citation count boosted: for a fee, fake journals will publish papers that include large numbers of citations to your work.
In terms of corrective actions, Ibrahim and colleagues call for bibliographic databases like Google Scholar to publish the c2-index alongside traditional citation metrics. Unfortunately, this is likely to be little more than a patch. If the c2-index does become widely published, bad actors could get around it by using AI to generate many papers that each cite the relevant individual a small number of times.
In an era of cheap and widely available artificial intelligence, stopping citation manipulation will be an uphill battle.
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“In mitigation, the Cabinet Office has decided to exclude “up to 20%” of responses from the analysis, where respondents suggested that expanding the use of digital identity might “mean citizens would not be able to use cash, that they would support a social credit system, that they would lead to an identity card being introduced or that digital identities are going to be made mandatory for all people. As these wider matters were not part of the consultation we determined these responses on wider issues to be out of scope for analysis.”
Just ignore opinions you don’t like! This is likely to be a model followed a lot in the coming years.
It’s that pesky 20% again.
How they must hate us.
The feeling is mutual
Meanwhile, the PSNI in Northern Ireland have demonstrated what can go wrong.
The reply from the Cabinet Office:
We have decided that the risk of this minor data breach is minimal and will take no action.
They have absoloutely zero interest in us citizens, I wonder if they realise that they are fermenting armed revolt against the unnamed and unknown BLOB, ie them?
With the last by election results showing centre right challenger parties at around three or four percent of the vote the BLOB may feel emboldened to press on with their agenda.If sufficient people of a centre right outlook are not prepared to vote for and become activists of challenger parties what chance of them taking to the streets?
Since the public has so obviously been misled by misinformation on social media, the government has no choice but to ignore the consultation results and go ahead as planned. I don’t suppose there will be any less misinformation when the next general election takes place, either.
We shall sabotage, subvert, upset and frustrate any and all effort to push through with digital ID. It shall not pass.
One of my bank account providers – Santander – has recently been “inviting” me to sign up to prove my identity with my voice, rather than the current log-in system I’ve been using for at least 12 years.
I declined, but unfortunately, the rejection wasn’t “Not until Hell freezes over.”
It might be a good idea to stop voting for people who (WHO) hate us
To complement your post here’s a 7min John Campbell vid, mainly taken up with the speech from Tedros if people haven’t seen it. ”Ominous” is indeed the word, in my opinion. What with all of this infrastructure building and manoeuvering of legislation all they really need now is another one of those timely faux plandemics….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1ZGbqXrfD8&ab_channel=Dr.JohnCampbell
I agree, an excellent piece from the new World Dictator. His colours show clearly. Defund the Dangerous UN now, and destroy every bit of its existance.
https://t.co/EVsHs9HdGS
doctors from Trinidad and Tobago asking their government not to sign up.
really succinct in 5 points!
So what. Digital ID is what “they” want to happen because, well, that’s what The RPTB want.
However, I have a very good friend, very high up at the top of the HSBC, who tells me that it simply will not work, and some of them know it.. It’s been modelled to death for a good few years now, and it’s very bad news – for them.
It’s too complex – even with the advent of A.I. – and that’s assuming everyone complies.. Lol.
It’s all about the human condition and apparently, around 20% of us just won’t play ball, and they know that.
Maybe another reason for them trying to eliminate us.
That 20% were the ones who didn’t take ze jab – maybe it was a real vaccine… for a yet to be released killer coof mk2?!
Good point , all the dissenters gone in a flash leaving the jab damaged to carry on like good little worker ants with Orwell’s Boot on all their faces .
Interesting idea, but the vaccines are many times more dangerous than the alleged disease, and people are beginning to notice. The excess death numbers (no reason given) are rising still, although many more informed people are becoming frightened as a friend or two suddenly die off, no reason can be found! Except the reason can be found and is difficult to ignore, except by the complicit Government Officials, like Valance!
Meanwhile, the PSNI in Northern Ireland have demonstrated what can go wrong.
Reported your fake ass!!
I told them in short, blunt but polite language that I did not support any of the suggested measures because I knew that they were aimed at the very things that the government claimed they are not and now they have decided to ignore my comments because I can see through their subterfuge.
Maybe next time I should just use a thermonuclear weapon instead!
Once again another young, fit lad dies suddenly and once again no mention of jab status. Wonder if he was in a school that mandated them…Just another case of ‘coinciditis’ presumably. Nothing out of the ordinary in Clown World.
”A Jefferson County high school basketball standout died Thursday afternoon.
Pinson Valley High School senior Caleb White suffered a medical emergency at school. Life-saving efforts were started at the school, and White was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The incident happened in the late morning.
Principal Michael Turner announced the student’s death in a note sent to parents which was later shared with the media.
Turner said counseling would be available to students and staff in the coming days.
White’s grandfather, George Varnadoe Jr., posted on Facebook that his 17-year-old grandson collapsed while working out with the team.”
https://www.al.com/news/2023/08/pinson-valley-high-school-star-basketball-player-caleb-white-dies-after-medical-emergency-at-school.html
The story:
Lets see the autopsy findings please. Oh no it is not allowed, the findings are all normal for a lad of this age! What did he die of? Nothing!
Absoloute scientific failure to properly investigate because the reason is already known. It was one of these:
Myocarditis, Pericarditis, heart failure because the muscle was infiltrated by spike protein, blood clots in major blood vessels, formed from spike protein. This data would be deadly to the scammers so is suppressed. It will happen to many many millions more of us yet.
Isn’t it strange how the sudden death of young people, particularly young athletes, is no longer considered newsworthy?
Almost as thought it’s become too common to report on.
This is what a bureaucratic technocracy disguised as democracy looks like.
‘In mitigation, the Cabinet Office has decided to exclude “up to 20%” of responses from the analysis, where respondents suggested that expanding the use of digital identity might “mean citizens would not be able to use cash, that they would support a social credit system…’ etc
‘it’, not ‘they’, right? (‘it’ referring to ‘expanding the use of’ ? – because otherwise it kind of looks the writer is saying that ‘it’ refers to ‘respondents’…
Up to 20%? They cannot even count properly. That statement is utterly meaningless. It means that the replies were screened before even counting anything, and some random number thrown away!
Public Consultation In Name Only – PCINO!
With an acronym like that it’s just asking for a film to be made about it – – but, unlike the Government report, that would just be fictional misinformation!
At one time I would not have wanted ID cards. But then with the mass immigration and illegal aliens entering whenever they feel like it, I started to want ID cards as a means of not allowing those entering illegally to access benefits, housing etc. But then I realised that government want mass immigration and they would not actually use D cards for that or similar purposes. So now I am back telling them to stick their ID card where the sun don’t shine, unless they are going to police the border, which they clearly are not.
” FACT: Cybersecurity is a critical priority for the government. We recognise how important it is to protect users and their data and have robust measures in place to ensure the security and integrity of online government services and systems. “
Slightly embarrassing after the identity and personal data of the entire complement of the Northern Irish Police Service – including those officers who are linked to MI5 – was released online for anyone to see.
At least, it would be slightly embarrassing if the Government had any integrity and/or morality.
Don’t forget that a few years ago, the entire database of Child Benefit recipients was similarly released.
Resistance is key to stopping this, don’t pay ULEZ if enough don’t pay it will crater the system, use cash as often as you can, boycott those places that refuse to take it, don’t accept digital I.D. mass civil disobedience is called for its the only thing that will bring real change.
Everyone should email their MP and ask if, in the light of the results of this consultation, the government will abandon plans for DID. And if the answer is no, ask why not. I already did so.
In General, We, The People, Do NOT line Fascism, Tyranny & Totalitarianism. the AWAKE Minority , is a Bigger Minority & the Ultimately, Politicians who are Governed by Money Lenders & Including Money Lenders, will be Banished By The People. People will Revert to a Civilisation That PEOPEL will hold accountable & Banish these folks.
tick tock tick tock tick tock