Coercive Citation Tactics Exposed in Case Study

Coercive Citation as Ways to
Increase One’s Citations
Scientific Publishing and Ethics
RESEARCH PROJECT
By Malibu Rohwani

1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ......................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................3
Case Study ...................................................................................................................5
Results: Improper but Tenacious..................................................................................6
(1) As editors of journals...........................................................................................6
Evidence from citations.............................................................................................7
Evidence from individual papers ............................................................................8
Evidence through references in journals...............................................................10
(2) A Guest Editor for a Special Issue.......................................................................13
(3) As Reviewer to Journals...................................................................................17
Conclusions ...............................................................................................................19
References .................................................................................................................20

2
Executive Summary
Coercive citation is a malpractice in academic publishing wherein an
editor of a scientific journal approached and coerced authors to add
unwarranted citations to articles before the editor will agree to
publish it. Previous study only investigated coercive citation from
editors to enrich journals’ citations. However this practice has not
been researched in an individual serving as editor or reviewer for a
journal performing coercive citation with the ambition to boost
one’s own citations. This research project undertakes a case study
in electrical engineering. My finding is compelling and exposed that
the subject of this study is involved in soliciting and coercing other
authors into citing his articles in 2 major ways: (1) As editors of
several journals, (2) A Guest Editor for a Special Issue. Substantial
evidence and proofs from citations of the individual and journals are
presented along with the discussion and arguments. The implication
of this practice is discussed, mainly to cause agony in the integrity
of academic publications.

3
Introduction
The significance of scientific publishing has become very clear,
not just about the communication of research discoveries but
become an obligation of the academic society, academicians get
credit for their work through citations and it was used as a measure
of their triumph and success. Citation to a published scientific
publication reference, typically a paper, allows one to judge the
work, as source background information vital for future
development, and acknowledges the contributions. Citation indexes
originally were designed for information retrieval, but now are
commonly used for research appraisal. Scientific publication is
scrutinized by the quantity of citations it can collect. Citation is the
foundation of the journal impact factor and h index.
Coercive citation is a malpractice in academic publishing
wherein an editor of a scientific journal approached and coerced
authors to add unwarranted citations to articles before the editor
will agree to publish it. Journal editors want to increase the citations
of their journals, because it raises the journal’s impact factor and
ranking, which is a prestige. Manipulation of impact factors and
self-citation has long been known in academic publishing. While
self-citation can be easily detected, coercive citation is difficult to
discover. A paper in Science in 2012 by Wilhite and Fong indicated
that about 20% of academics working in economics, sociology,
psychology, and multiple business disciplines have experienced
coercive citation [1]. Individual cases in journals have also been
reported in other disciplines [2].

4
Coercive citation was reported to be practiced by the editors of
scientific journals without indicating that the article was actually
lacking in provenance, nor suggesting particular articles, authors, or
bodies of work, but merely directing authors to add citations from a
particular author or journal [1].
This quote from an editor as a condition for publication
highlights the quandary: “you cite This Journal only once in your 40
references. Consequently, we kindly ask you to add references of
articles published in This Journal to your present article”.
Such a message is clearly deciphered by the authors that the
summoned citations must be added or the article will be
rejected.[1,3]
Wilhite and Fong [1] studied coercive citation from editors to
enhance journals’ citations, but this practice of coercive citation can
also be practiced by as an individual serving as editor or reviewer
for a journal with the aim to boost one’s own citations. Failure to
recognize this trend is likely to cause an underestimation of the
breadth of practice in this topic. Researching an individual does
however provide a good understanding of the overall trend of
publication and citation. This type of coercive citation has never
been studied at a micro-level on individual. To explore the extent
and nature of such coercive self-citation, I will conduct a research
project in this exciting new area using a case study; the citation
pattern is carefully analyzed to expose the practice of coercive
citation. By analyzing progressions in research citations, directions
in scientific inquiry can be established, and used to illustrate the
development of scientific publishing and recognition.

5
This research provides a comprehensive overview of the
various tricks that are exercised for increasing citations. I will show
that citation solicitation and coercion is evident and appeared to be
practiced opportunistically in this case. My research through case
study would make a compelling exposé due to its novelty. The
implication of this practice is discussed, mainly to cause agony in
the integrity of academic publications.
Case Study
I conducted this research project by investigating a case study
using an individual who is well known anecdotally on the World Wide
Web in practicing self-citation. N. Tansu is a Professor of Electrical
Engineering who is well known to have a very high self-citation [4].
Some anecdotal studies indicated that the subject has over 50% of
self-citations, supposedly to be deliberate in order to increase his
citation numbers and h index [5-6]. While self-citation can be easily
found out, coercive citation is a more sophisticated method which is
not obvious. This research paper seeks to characterize the influence
of coercive citation for a particular individual for one’s personal
benefits. In order to analyze this inclination, publication and citation
numbers and patterns were searched and subsequently recovered
from a research database Scopus.
Citation databases make it possible to search cited references;
that is, they search for references that are listed in the
bibliographies of research publications. This enabled one to follow a

6
particular cited reference, or cited author, forward in time to find
other articles or journals that have cited that author or work.
Results: Improper but Tenacious
Upon conducting a search using the Scopus database, I
retrieved citation patterns of the subject in different ways, which I
will explain in the following sections. There are a number of factors
that can be used in order to narrow down the potential citation
anomaly.
The analysis is compelling and showed that the subject of this
study is hypothesized in soliciting and coercing other authors into
citing his articles in 3 ways:
(1) As editors of journals
The subject Tansu is editors for several journals, particularly:
1. IEEE OSA JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=0651
7575)
2. Optical Materials Express
(http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ome/journal/ome/about.cfm#
board)
3. IEEE Photonics Journal
(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/aboutJournal.jsp?punumber=4
563994)

7
The position held as an Associate Editor allows one to solicit and
importune the authors into citing the editor’s papers. This is evident
as most of the citations of the subject came from the above-
mentioned 3 journals.
The conclusion is justified by three methods of investigation,
which is singled out in Scopus database and I will outline in detail in
the following sections.
Evidence from citations
Up to May 2013, the subject Tansu has 3131 citations. During Jan
2012-May 2013, Tansu obtained almost half of his total citations.
These two years represent a sudden increase in citation volume. I
will found out why.
Premise: If coercive citation is to occur, the citations to the subject
should come mainly from the mentioned-above 3 journals.
In 2012, Tansu acquired 621 citations, which came from 204
articles, meaning each article are on average gave 3 citations.
However, the top references came from:
Optical Materials Express (17 references)
IEEE Photonics Journal (16 references)
In Jan-May 2013, Tansu obtained 685 citations, which is very high
considering it is only 5 months and more citations than previous
whole year.

8
The citations came from 158 articles, meaning each article is on
average gave 4 citations. However, the top references came from:
IEEE OSA Journal of Display Technology (37 references)
Optical Materials Express (11 references)
IEEE Photonics Journal (5 references)
This anomaly is mirrored in further evidences in the following
sections.
Evidence from individual papers
I also inspected the citations of the subject’s individual papers.
Premise: If coercive citation is to occur, the citations to the
individual papers of the subject should come mainly from the
mentioned-above 3 journals.
My finding is that most citations should come from the above-
mentioned 3 journals. These are somewhat not extraordinary and
herewith are some evidential proofs from some of the papers of the
subject:
1. Zhao H., Liu G., Zhang J., Poplawsky J.D., Dierolf V., Tansu N.
Approaches for high internal quantum efficiency green InGaN
light-emitting diodes with large overlap quantum wells. 2011,
Optics Express, (14)
This paper has 160 citations. Tansu himself has 17 self-citations,
but the rest of citations come from
• 33 citations are from IEEE OSA Journal of Display Technology

9
• 20 citations are from Optical Materials Express
• 8 citations are from IEEE Photonics Journal
The subject gained 61 citations by coercing other authors to cite
this paper.
2. Li X.-H., Song R., Ee Y-.K., Kumnorkaew P., Gilchrist J.F., Tansu
N. Light extraction efficiency and radiation patterns of III-
nitride light-emitting diodes with colloidal microlens arrays
with various aspect ratios. 2011, IEEE Photonics Journal, (3)
489-499
This paper has 89 citations, Tansu himself has 10 self-citations,
The subject benefited 38 citations by coercing authors to cite this
paper.
3. Zhao H., Liu G., Arif R.A., Tansu N. Current injection efficiency
induced efficiency-droop in InGaN quantum well light-emitting
diodes. 2010, Solid-State Electronics, (10) 1119-1124
This paper has 89 citations, Tansu himself has 25 self citations,
The subject profited 42 citations from being editors of the 3
journals.
Another important finding is that almost all of the citations
come from articles from Asian counties (Taiwan, China, Korea and
Singapore). These 3 examples not unexpectedly showed that the

10
subject has gained more than 50% of citations from being editors.
This again justifies my premise; obviously the editor coerced the
authors to add superfluous citations.
Evidence through references in journals
In this era of citation insanity, the choice of journal in which
the research will be published is very important. It is no longer just
the number of published works that measures an author’s success,
but also perhaps more importantly, published research is evaluated
by the number of citations it receives. To validate this hypothesis, I
will look into the number of references cited by the papers in the 3
journals.
Premise: If coercive citation is manifested, the number of references
to the subject (Tansu) should be huge compared to other authors.
Anomaly in references should be detected.
I looked into the citations and references in the 3 journals:
Citations in IEEE OSA JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
In Jan-May 2013, the journal has 115 articles
Tansu is the top author with 6 papers
1410 References were cited by the 115 articles.
Top on the cited list is Nakamura, S. (with 45 citations) an obvious
one. (Shuji Nakamura is the inventor of the blue LED, a major
breakthrough in lighting technology.)
But second on the list is Tansu with 43 references.

11
In 2012, the journal has 123 articles
As Tansu was not an editor at the time, he didn't publish a single
article in the journal.
But Tansu cannot be found in any of the references.
This is an anomaly, in 2013 references to Tansu jump from 0 to 43.
This can be easily explained because Tansu became an editor in
2013 and guest edit a special issue (see below for a full discussion).
By becoming an editor, the subject can benefit and crown the
citation list of IEEE OSA JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY.
Citations in Optical Materials Express
In Jan-May 2013, the journal has published 54 articles.
Tansu didn't publish any paper.
Number one on the list is Tansu, with 25 references.
In the 5094 References that were cited by the 202 articles, Tansu
shared 25 references.
In 2011, the journal has 170 articles.
In the 4294 References that were cited by the 202 articles, Tansu
shared 12 references.
Every year the number of citations to Tansu increases showing the
anomaly, especially in 2013, Tansu is the top cited references.

12
Citations in IEEE Photonics Journal
In Jan-May 2013, the journal has 93 articles
Tansu published 6 papers
In the 2261 References that were cited by the 93 articles,
Tansu is on the top list with 23 references
Tansu has 2 papers
In the 5459 References that were cited by the 264 articles,
Tansu shared 37 references.
Tansu didn't publish any paper
In the 2634 References that were cited by the 114 selected articles,
Tansu shared 13 references.
This trend is not observed in other journals in the same field: IEEE
Photonics Technology Letters, Applied Physics Letters, Optics
Express, Applied Optics. In other words the subject cannot be found
as the top cited references. This means the work of the subject is
not considered important in other journals, but raise interrogation
on why became top cited references are only found in the 3 journals
he edited.
Not unexpectedly, it can be concluded that solicited and
coercive citations to Tansu occurred and it is not coincidental that
after becoming an editor of a journal, the journal is used to boost
up his citations.

13
Remark: Number of references is not equal to number of
citations. Each reference could be cited many times by different
papers. The number of citations is usually higher than number of
references.
(2) A Guest Editor for a Special Issue
Being part of an editorial board (associate editors) for journals
only allowed one to have limited coercion to the papers an editor
handle. But if one is selected as a guest editor for a Special Issue,
one can coerced all papers to cite one’s papers. The subject was a
guest editor for IEEE OSA Journal of Display Technology in Volume 9,
Issue 4 (April 2013).
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=6481607&p
unumber=9425
Premise: If coercive citation is manifested, the number of citations
to the subject (Tansu) should occur on every paper in the special
issue and should be huge compared to other authors. Anomaly in
references should be detected.
The special issue that feature Recent advances in solid state
lighting turns out to be Advancing one’s citations. Here each of the
papers in the Special issue is analysed and showed that all of the
papers cited Tansu unnecessarily:
a) Effects of H2 in GaN barrier spacer layer of InGaN/GaN multiple
quantum-well light-emitting diodes. Lai, W.-C., Yang, Y.-Y.
2013
10 citations to Tansu

14
b) Investigating the effect of piezoelectric polarization on GaN-
based LEDs with different quantum barrier thickness. Wang,
C.K., Chiang, T.H., Chen, K.Y., Chiou, Y.Z., Lin, T.K., Chang,
S.P., Chang, S.J.
c) Lateral current spreading effect on the efficiency droop in GaN
based light-emitting diodes. Huang, S., Fan, B., Chen, Z.,
Zheng, Z., Luo, H., Wu, Z., Wang, G., Jiang, H.
d) Effect of polarization-matched n-type AlGaInN electron-
blocking layer on the optoelectronic properties of blue InGaN
light-emitting diodes. Li, Y., Gao, Y., He, M., Zhou, J., Lei, Y.,
Zhang, L., Zhu, K., Chen, Y.
e) Effects of initial GaN growth mode on patterned sapphire on
the opto-electrical characteristics of GaN-based light-emitting
diodes. Chang, H.-M., Lai, W.-C., Chang, S.-J.
f) On the Effect of Step-Doped Quantum Barriers in InGaN/GaN
Light Emitting Diodes. Zi-Hui Zhang ; Tan, S.T. ; Zhengang Ju ;
Wei Liu ; Yun Ji ; Kyaw, Z. ; Dikme, Y. ; Xiao Wei Sun ; Demir,
H.V.
g) Effects of H2 in GaN Barrier Spacer Layer of InGaN/GaN
Multiple Quantum-Well Light-Emitting Diodes. Wei-Chih Lai ;
Ya-Yu Yang
h) Improved Carrier Distributions by Varying Barrier Thickness for
InGaN/GaN LEDs. Yu, S.F. ; Ray-Ming Lin ; Chang, S.J. ; Chen,
J.R. ; Chu, J.Y. ; Kuo, C.T. ; Jiao, Z.Y.

15
i) Effect of Si Doping Level in n-Cladding Layer on the
Performance of InGaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes. Zhiyuan
Zheng ; Zimin Chen ; Yingda Chen ; Hualong Wu ; Bingfeng Fan
; Zhisheng Wu ; Gang Wang ; Hao Jiang
j) Performance Improvement of Nitride-Based Light-Emitting
Diode With a Thin Mg-Delta-Doped Hole Injection Layer. Yulun
Xian ; Shanjin Huang ; Zhiyuan Zheng ; Bingfeng Fan ; Zimin
Chen ; Zhisheng Wu ; Gang Wang ; Baijun Zhang ; Hao Jiang
k) Observation of Electroluminescence From Quantum Wells Far
From p-GaN Layer in Nitride-Based Light-Emitting Diodes.
Zhiyuan Zheng ; Zimin Chen ; Yingda Chen ; Hualong Wu ;
Shanjin Huang ; Bingfeng Fan ; Zhisheng Wu ; Gang Wang ; Hao
Jiang
l) Lateral Current Spreading Effect on the Efficiency Droop in GaN
Based Light-Emitting Diodes. Shanjin Huang ; Bingfeng Fan ;
Zimin Chen ; Zhiyuan Zheng ; Hongtai Luo ; Zhisheng Wu ;
Gang Wang ; Hao Jiang
m)First-Principle Electronic Properties of Dilute-As GaNAs Alloy
for Visible Light Emitters. Chee-Keong Tan ; Jing Zhang ; Xiao-
Hang Li ; Guangyu Liu ; Tayo, B.O. ; Tansu, N.
n) Efficiency and Droop Improvement in Hybrid Warm White LEDs
Using InGaN and AlGaInP High-Voltage LEDs. Kuo-Ju Chen ;
Hsuan-Ting Kuo ; Yen-Chih Chiang ; Hsin-Chu Chen ; Chao-

16
Hsun Wang ; Min-Hsiung Shih ; Chien-Chung Lin ; Ching-Jen
Pan ; Hao-Chung Kuo
o) Enhanced Light Output Power and Growth Mechanism of GaN-
Based Light-Emitting Diodes Grown on Cone-Shaped
Patterned Template. Da-Wei Lin ; Jhih-Kai Huang ; Chia-Yu Lee
; Ruey-Wen Chang ; Yu-Pin Lan ; Chien-Chung Lin ; Kang-
Yuan Lee ; Chung-Hsiang Lin ; Po-Tsung Lee ; Gou-Chung Chi
; Hao-Chung Kuo
p) Effects of Initial GaN Growth Mode on Patterned Sapphire on
the Opto-Electrical Characteristics of GaN-Based Light-
Emitting Diodes. Hung-Ming Chang ; Wei-Chih Lai ; Shoou-
Jinn Chang
q) Analysis of interdiffused InGaN quantum wells for visible light-
emitting diodes. Zhao, H., Jiao, X., Tansu, N.
r) Analysis of internal quantum efficiency and current injection
efficiency in III-nitride light-emitting diodes. Zhao, H., Liu, G.,
Zhang, J., Arif, R.A., Tansu, N.
s) Semipolar InGaN/GaN Light-Emitting Diodes for High-
Efficiency Solid-State Lighting; Feezell, D.F. ; Speck, J.S. ;
DenBaars, S.P. ; Nakamura, S.
1 citation to Tansu
All papers have 6-10 citations to Tansu, and noticed all papers
are from China, Taiwan and Singapore where an editor can easily
coerced the authors. The only paper that escaped is by Feezell and

17
Shuji Nakamura, a well-known authority in InGaN LED. This is in
accordance with the research by Wilhite and Fong that many journal
editors appear to strategically target certain authors, such as
assistant and associate professors (from Asian countries), rather
than full professors (Nakamura), relying on the fact that lower
ranking authors may be more willing to add the unnecessary
citations. They also found that while the majority of authors
disapprove of the practice, most acquiesce and add citations when
coerced.
Again, not unexpectedly, citation manipulation is observed.
The subject gained more than 160 citations from a single journal
edition, thanks to IEEE OSA Journal of Display Technology.
The excessive citations to Tansu in the papers are not necessary and
essentially superfluous. Take an example the paper by Zhang et al.
On the Effect of Step-Doped Quantum Barriers in InGaN/GaN Light
Emitting Diodes:
“For that, staggered InGaN quantum wells have been proposed and
investigated [16]–[20].” “ …, therefore increasing the radiative
recombination rates [23]–[26]”
References [16] -[20] and [23]–[26] are all papers by Tansu. This
finding is consistent with a previous study in SPIE Proceedings [6].
(3) As Reviewer to Journals
In addition to being editors, according to his CV
http://www.ece.lehigh.edu/~tansu/pdf/Tansu_CV.pdf, the subject regularly

18
reviewed papers for Applied Physics Letters and Journal of Applied
Physics. It is conjectured that the subject also coerced authors of
the paper he reviewed to cite his papers. This is more difficult to
hunt down.

19
Conclusions
Citation manipulation is as ancient as the process of
provenance itself, and academicians shouldn’t be stunned that
incongruous citation behavior is occurring. Considering all this
valuable information, my study suggests that citation solicitation
and coercion by an individual is a phenomenon, and is a
conundrum. This finding is backed up by solid data from citations of
the subject and in journals.
Coercive citation is primarily targeting vulnerable younger
researchers from Asian countries as publishing in a journal is a
critical consideration for an author. This behavior is in order to have
the greatest effect on the citation of an individual that is
opportunistic. This case study showed that an editor gained 160
citations from just a single special issue in a journal.
This kind of comportment is doing harm to science. I hope this
research brings this unscrupulous practice to radiance. If left
unimpeded, it could distort our understanding of scientific quality
and research impact and, over many occasions, disquiet
pronouncements about tenure, promotion, awards and funding.
Prominently, it is adding to the difficulties faced by susceptible
junior member of faculty who are trying to construct a record for
tenure.

20
References
[1] Wilhite, A. W.; Fong, E. A. (2012). "Coercive Citation in Academic
Publishing". Science 335 (6068): 542–3.
doi:10.1126/science.1212540.
[2] Smith, R. (1997). "Journal accused of manipulating impact
factor". BMJ 314 (7079): 461. doi:10.1136/bmj.314.7079.461d.
[3] Davis, P. (2012) “When Journal Editors Coerce Authors to Self-
Cite”. The Scholarly Kitchen
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/02/02/when-journal-
editors-coerce-authors-to-self-cite/
[4] Dem, G. Nelson Tansu: Self Citation Record
http://www.academia.edu/794892/Nelson_Tansu_Self_Citation_Rec
ord
[5] Dem, G. How to increase your papers citations and h index in 5
simple steps.
http://www.academia.edu/934257/How_to_increase_your_papers_ci
tations_and_h_index_in_5_simple_steps
[6] Dem, G. Update in SPIE Proceedings: More Consistent Self
Citation.
http://www.academia.edu/633781/Update_in_SPIE_Proceedings_Mo
re_Consistent_Self_Citation

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