Guest Post — Beyond the Prestige: Why Scientific Impact is More Than a Numbers Game
Today’s guest post introduces the YCR-index as an alternative to measuring value with raw citation counts.
Making AI Use of Scholarly Content Traceable, Measurable, and Trustworthy: A Meeting Report from Cambridge Scholarly AI Workshop
A Cambridge workshop proposes new standard work to support provenance, attribution and metrics in scholarly communications AI tools.
Attribution, Provenance, Reference, Citation, and AI for Research Applications – Understanding the Differences
Building robust citation and attribution into generative AI systems are foundational to usage, credit and trust. We need to expect more from AI.
What AI Asks of Open Access
As AI systems increasingly reason from the scientific literature, the integrity signals that make research trustworthy — open data, structured metadata, robust retraction processes — matter more than ever. PLOS CEO Alison Mudditt on why open access publishers have a different set of obligations in an AI world.
Guest Post — The Open Access – AI Conundrum: Does Free to Read Mean Free to Train?
It is time for OA proponents to engage in public debate with academic associations, universities and national funding agencies, because the widespread use of academic content in AI models poses significant risks for the research ecosystem.
bioRxiv and Citations: Just Another Piece of Flawed Bibliometric Research?
Even a flawed paper can offer lessons on how (not) to report, and what (not) to claim.
Guest Post — The Case For Not Citing Chatbots As Information Sources (Part II)
Citing chatbots as information sources offer little in terms of promoting smart use of generative AI and could also be damaging.
Guest Post — Chatbots: To Cite Or Not To Cite? (Part I)
If you use a chatbot in writing a text, and are discouraged from listing it as a coauthor, should you attribute the relevant passages to the tool via citation instead? Is it appropriate to cite chatbots as information sources?
Citation Contamination: References to Predatory Journals in the Legitimate Scientific Literature
How many articles from predatory journals are being cited in the legitimate (especially medical) literature? Some disturbing findings.
Revisiting: Splitting the Difference — Does an Editorial Mutiny at a Journal Do Much Long-term Damage?
The recent editorial board defection from an Elsevier journal brings up issues raised in Todd Carpenter’s 2013 post on editorial boycotts and declarations of independence. They generate a lot of heat, but what do the data say about the actual success of the new journals compared to the journals that were overthrown.
If We don’t Know What Citations Mean, What Does it Mean when We Count Them?
There is no shortage of critique of citation metrics and other efforts to quantify the “impact” of scholarship. Will a report calling for “responsible metrics” help researchers, administrators and funders finally wean themselves?
When Do Citations Reflect "Impact?"
Citation practices vary between and within STM and HSS; they also vary by discipline and within disciplines. Though citation metrics presume evidence of “impact,” in fact a citation may represent a range of intentions. Given the emphasis on citation indices, isn’t it important to query what scholars are actually doing when they cite another scholar’s work?
Why are Authors Citing Older Papers?
Scholars are citing an increasingly aging collection of scholarship. Does this reflect the growing ease with accessing the literature, or a structural shift in the way science is funded–and the way scientists are rewarded?
Why Are Publishers and Editors Wasting Time Formatting Citations?
The majority of time spent in editing and formatting citations in the publication process is time wasted. We now have in place nearly all the components to use persistent identifiers, linked metadata, and style sheets to improve how citations can be structured and processed. Using these tools can significantly improve the accuracy of references and reduce the time editors spend on this production function. Even when automated, we bounce between linked metadata, then to text, then to metadata again.
Exhibition Prohibition — Why Shouldn’t Publishers Celebrate an Improved Impact Factor?
A trend toward shaming journals that promote their impact factors needs to be rolled back. Impact factors are journal metrics. It’s the other uses that need to be curtailed.