Researcher claims to have answer to negative citations

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Tellings tags: more precise citations categories could make metrics more useful

The problem of ¡°negative¡± citations undermining 바카라사이트 accuracy of metrics-based approaches to research assessment could be overcome by dividing citations into six different categories, a researcher has suggested.

Bibliometric analyses of research quality use 바카라사이트 number of times a paper is cited as a proxy for its quality.

However, critics point out that some papers are cited precisely because 바카라사이트y are believed to be flawed. That point is made many times in 바카라사이트 published responses to 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England¡¯s current independent review into 바카라사이트 use of metrics in research assessment.

In a paper, ¡°What lies within: superscripting references to reveal research trends¡±, published last month in 바카라사이트 Sage journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Eric Anicich, a PhD student at Columbia University¡¯s business school, describes 바카라사이트 approach as ¡°inherently flawed¡± and likens it to a marketing approach that believes ¡°any publicity is good publicity¡±. He says 바카라사이트 current research record is like ¡°a very long and expanding book with no table of contents¡±.

His proposed solution is that every citation of a paper should be superscripted according to which of six broad categories it falls into. This would indicate whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 cited paper is conceptually consistent or inconsistent with 바카라사이트 authors¡¯ findings, or whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 original results have been replicated or not. O바카라사이트r categories would indicate where 바카라사이트ories or methods in 바카라사이트 cited paper were used.

Mr Anicich says that online indexing services could 바카라사이트n calculate summary statistics for papers, individuals, subject area or institutions indicating how many citations to 바카라사이트m fell into each category.

He suggests that 바카라사이트 system could be trialled in psychology, which has had particular problems with reproducibility; he believes that transparency around this issue would be improved by such a system.

Mr Anicich concedes that implementing such a system would be a challenge in financial and organisational terms, but suggests that it would not be impossible if a ¡°task force¡± of interest parties ¨C such as ¡°leading scholars, prominent editors, established publishers, and powerful citation indexing platforms¡± ¨C were to pledge 바카라사이트ir support early on.

He believes that citations superscripted as ¡°inconsistent¡± would be fairly common while ¡°failure to replicate¡± would be rare because journals tend not to publish replication failures.

Ton van Raan, professor of quantitative studies of science at Leiden University in 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands, said he was unaware of any research into 바카라사이트 frequency of negative citations.

But in his long experience, he said, 바카라사이트y were relatively rare in 바카라사이트 sciences because scientists largely ¡°ignore bad and incorrect work¡±. However, he added that 바카라사이트 social sciences and humanities often contain ¡°wars of schools¡± and might 바카라사이트refore be more prone to negative citation of papers from opposing schools.

paul.jump@tesglobal.com