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Starting from July 2020 at the University of Milan, one of the largest and most important Italian universities, the first transformative agreements with some major international scientific publishers have come into effect. These agreements allow corresponding authors to publish in open access without directly bearing the publication costs. From the perspective of corresponding authors, these agreements could increase the dissemination of their scientific output and, thereby, the impact on the scientific community. However, transformative agreements are part of a rapidly changing publishing market that already includes open access articles in both so‐called ‘Diamond’ and ‘Gold’ journals. The aim of our study is to understand to what extent the positioning of journals in impact rankings, the disciplinary field of the article, together with the career stage of the corresponding author, influence the choice to publish in a journal covered by transformative agreements rather than in other open access or hybrid journals. The results of our investigation draw attention to the importance of rules in Italy governing scientific careers in different disciplinary fields and potential unforeseen effects of policies favouring open access.
Starting from July 2020 at the University of Milan, one of the largest and most important Italian universities, the first transformative agreements with some major international scientific publishers have come into effect. These agreements allow corresponding authors to publish in open access without directly bearing the publication costs. From the perspective of corresponding authors, these agreements could increase the dissemination of their scientific output and, thereby, the impact on the scientific community. However, transformative agreements are part of a rapidly changing publishing market that already includes open access articles in both so‐called ‘Diamond’ and ‘Gold’ journals. The aim of our study is to understand to what extent the positioning of journals in impact rankings, the disciplinary field of the article, together with the career stage of the corresponding author, influence the choice to publish in a journal covered by transformative agreements rather than in other open access or hybrid journals. The results of our investigation draw attention to the importance of rules in Italy governing scientific careers in different disciplinary fields and potential unforeseen effects of policies favouring open access.
This study critically examined the increasing threat of predatory publications in academia, revealing how researchers at Pakistan’s Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) take advantage of this trend for academic gains. We examined the widespread trend of predatory publishing for Pakistani public and private HEIs, explicitly focusing on Physical Education and Sports Sciences (PESS). We carefully analysed a collection of (345) international articles from 48 faculty members of 26 HEIs (21 Public + 5 Private) until March 2024 extending by July 2024. We excluded 95 articles unrecognized by Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) plus 11 undecided publications. Our results revealed that 214 (89.53%) of 239 so-called recognized international papers were published in hijacked/predatory journals. The authenticity of publications was determined by checking the HEC, Elsevier’s Scopus, and Web of Science (WOS) databases, respectively. Leading predatory publications, the University of Punjab from the public sector has 108 contributions from 5 PESS faculty members with no recognized articles. The University of Lahore, from the private sector, has 104 predatory contributions by 4 PESS faculty members with only two recognized articles. Among all Pakistani universities, PESS researchers from Government College University Lahore won the lead for (15 of 28) recognized research paper contributions with no predatory publication. Predatory publishing affects the credibility of the researchers engaged, posing a threat to the nation’s scientific reputation in the PESS arena. We suggest immediate policy initiatives to address this unethical practice and stress the need to maintain research integrity.
Citation metrics are widely used in research appraisal, but they provide incomplete views of scientists’ impact and research track record. Other indicators of research practices should be linked to citation data. We have updated a Scopus-based database of highly-cited scientists (top-2% in each scientific subfield according to a composite citation indicator) to incorporate retraction data. Using data from the Retraction Watch database (RWDB), retraction records were linked to Scopus citation data. Of 55,237 items in RWDB as of August 15, 2024, we excluded non-retractions, retractions clearly not due to any author error, retractions where the paper had been republished, and items not linkable to Scopus records. Eventually 39,468 eligible retractions were linked to Scopus. Among 217,097 top-cited scientists in career-long impact and 223,152 in single recent year (2023) impact, 7,083 (3.3%) and 8,747 (4.0%), respectively, had at least one retraction. Scientists with retracted publications had younger publication age, higher self-citation rates, and larger publication volume than those without any retracted publications. Retractions were more common in the life sciences and rare or nonexistent in several other disciplines. In several developing countries, very high proportions of top-cited scientists had retractions (highest in Senegal (66.7%), Ecuador (28.6%) and Pakistan (27.8%) in career-long citation impact lists). Variability in retraction rates across fields and countries suggests differences in research practices, scrutiny, and ease of retraction. Addition of retraction data enhances the granularity of top-cited scientists’ profiles, aiding in responsible research evaluation. However, caution is needed when interpreting retractions, as they do not always signify misconduct; further analysis on a case-by-case basis is essential. The database should hopefully provide a resource for meta-research and deeper insights into scientific practices.
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