Tales of Tenure Terror: Stop Citing Yourself
What’s the opposite of predatory journals? Predatory articles. You may have heard about this article that has 182 words but 212 references. Also? All citations are by the original author.
Who would fall for this?
Well, in the sciences, citations are made for related research as a way to give credit and not necessarily because it is incorporated in the work. So this may be written to get a high rating for citations and possibly give the author some clout. Who is this author? Why, he is on the faculty at the well-known California South University. I think that this is the school the 90210 gang attended. The con is deep; a whole university website had to be made to support the scam. I appreciate the hustle.
While diving into this rabbit hole, I came across a weird tweet from a company called Diffusion Editing:
This is a thing of beauty. It’s almost meme like, but the message is simple: you will get published in a journal if you use track changes because it will…confuse them?
Here’s another one:
Even me, queen of typos, noticed the odd wording and lack of closing paranthesis. So…I was hooked! Let’s check out the website. it’s not a total scam; many of these editing services exist, although the quality is questionable. But this caught my eye…a media kit! Because the major outlets just love obscure academic research.
Here’s the sample:
Oh yes. A colorful background, stock images, and a copy-paste of the abstract.
I believe in buyer beware, so one is forcing anyone to buy this, but it does feel icky, especially when people promise academic success.
What is this? A semi-regular newsletter about culture and academia and academic culture.