Impact Factor Denied to 20 Journals For Self-Citation, Stacking
This year, Clarivate Analytics, publishers of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), suppressed 20 journals, 14 for high levels of self-citation and six for citation stacking — a pattern known informally as a “citation cartel.” In addition, it assigned an Editorial Expression of Concern to five journals after it became aware of citation anomalies following the completion of the 2018 report. Suppression from the JCR lasts one year.
Titles are suppressed when either self-citation or stacking distorts the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and rank of a journal such that it does not fairly reflect the journal’s citation performance in the literature. This can happen through self-citation, particularly when there is a concentration of citations to papers published in the previous two years, or when there is a high level of JIF-directed citations between two or more journals. The first citation cartel was identified in 2012, involving four biomedical journals. Other cartels have been identified in soil sciences, bioinformatics, and business. The JCR publishes annual lists of suppressed titleswith key data and descriptions.
SUPPRESSION FOR HIGH LEVELS OF SELF-CITATION
| Full Title | Category | % Self cites in JIF numerator | % Distortion of category rank |
| Aquaculture Economics & Management | Fisheries | 56% | 35% |
| Archives of Budo | Sport Sciences | 45% | 34% |
| Canadian Historical Review | History | 63% | 49% |
| Chinese Journal of International Law | International Relations | 51% | 33% |
| Chinese Journal of International Law | Law | 51% | 34% |
| Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering | Engineering, Mechanical | 48% | 27% |
| Eurasia Journal of Mathematics Science and Technology Education | Education & Educational Research | 62% | 36% |
| International Journal of American Linguistics | Linguistics | 64% | 36% |
| International Journal of Applied Mechanics | Mechanics | 48% | 36% |
| International Journal of Civil Engineering | Engineering, Civil | 59% | 27% |
| Journal of Micropalaeontology | Paleontology | 51% | 40% |
| Journal of Voice | Otorhinolaryngology | 47% | 45% |
| Maritime Policy & Management | Transportation | 54% | 31% |
| Pediatric Dentistry | Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine | 48% | 44% |
| Pediatric Dentistry | Pediatrics | 48% | 33% |
| Psychoanalytic Quarterly | Psychology, Psychoanalysis | 70% | 46% |
SUPPRESSION FOR CITATION STACKING
| Recipient Journal | Donor Journal | % JIF Numerator | % Exchange to JIF Years |
| European Journal of the History of Economic Thought | History of Economic Ideas | 56% | 86% |
| Journal of the History of Economic Thought | History of Economic Ideas | 64% | 88% |
| Liver Cancer | Digestive Diseases | 40% | 95% |
| Liver Cancer | Oncology | 23% | 85% |
JOURNALS RECEIVING AN EDITORIAL EXPRESSION OF CONCERN
- Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Letters
- Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy
- Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology
- Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- Bone Research
The JCR has a public document explaining the guidelines it uses to evaluate journals for suppression. However, as illustrated through reverse engineering previously suppressed titles, threshold levels are set extremely high, so high, that a journal that increased its Impact Factor by nearly 5-fold and moved to first-place among its subject category can escape suppression. Nevertheless, suppression from the JCR has been shown to drastically reduce levels of self-citation following reintroduction. If the JCR were traffic cops, they appear to be stopping only the most reckless drivers.
Source: scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org