How citation distortions create unfounded authority: analysis of a citation network

Greenberg, Steven A.

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2680

Cited by 409 publications

(419 citation statements)

References 295 publications

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“…In addition to the well-known fact that citation practices confer on negative values an inherent quality of not spreading easily through the literature [7], authors rarely choose to study systems "where nothing happens" and often do not report results where the expected effects are not observed. Obviously, this has the automatic consequence of producing a bias in existing results and in the corresponding accepted belief.…”

Section: Bias Towards Studying Systems "Where Something Happens"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Careful reading of the introduction of the 63 papers considered show a worrying repetition of the "accepted belief" that organic carbon concentration increases are widespread and a few papers are repeatedly cited. Citation "is not simply an impartial scholarly method for joining related published knowledge" [7]. Authors should probably be less guided by inertia when making the choice of which results to cite and which to ignore.…”

Section: Recommendations For Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They very seldom address issues related to the methodology used, quality of the results, etc. This critical study is an attempt to clarify the situation by analyzing published increasing trends and, in particular, the reliability of the analytical and data treatment methods used and, finally, to evaluate to what extent they are not the result of a belief system generated by a so-called "repetition cascade" (i.e., repetition of claims) [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term Trends of Organic Carbon Concentrations in Freshwaters: Strengths and Weaknesses of Existing Evidence

Filella

Rodríguez-Murillo

2014

Water

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Many articles published in the last few years start with the assumption that the past decades have seen an increase in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in the rivers and lakes of the Northern Hemisphere. This study analyses whether the existing evidence supports this claim. With this aim, we have collected published studies where long series of organic carbon concentrations (i.e., longer than 10 years) were analyzed for existing trends and have carefully evaluated the 63 articles found. Information has been collated in a comprehensive and comparable way, allowing readers to easily access it. The two main aspects considered in our analysis have been the analytical methods used and the data treatment methods applied. Both are sensitive issues because, on the one hand, the difficulties associated with correctly determining organic carbon concentrations in surface waters are well known, while, on the other, dealing with real environmental data (i.e., lack of normality, censoring, missing values, etc.) is an extremely intricate matter. Other issues such as data reporting and the geographical location of the systems studied are also discussed. In conclusion, it is clear that organic carbon concentrations have increased in some surface waters in the Northern Hemisphere since the 1990s. However, due to a lack of data in many parts of the world, it is not known whether this phenomenon is general and, more importantly, in the areas for which such data do exist, the reporting and methodological problems in the published studies prevent any conclusion on the existence of a general temporal behavior of organic carbon from being drawn.

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Section: Bias Towards Studying Systems "Where Something Happens"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recommendations For Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term Trends of Organic Carbon Concentrations in Freshwaters: Strengths and Weaknesses of Existing Evidence

Filella

Rodríguez-Murillo

2014

Water

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“…Even when "negative" results appear, citation bias may still continue to distort the literature and the prevailing theory may continue to be based on the "positive" results. Hence, citation bias may maintain prevailing theories even when they are clearly false and unfounded (Greenberg, 2009). …”

Section: The Rejection Of H 0 Is Guaranteed On the Long-runmentioning

confidence: 99%

When null hypothesis significance testing is unsuitable for research: a reassessment

Szűcs

Ioannidis

2016

Preprint

107

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Null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) has several shortcomings that are likely contributing factors behind the widely debated replication crisis of (cognitive) neuroscience, psychology, and biomedical science in general. We review these shortcomings and suggest that, after sustained negative experience, NHST should no longer be the default, dominant statistical practice of all biomedical and psychological research. If theoretical predictions are weak we should not rely on all or nothing hypothesis tests. Different inferential methods may be most suitable for different types of research questions. Whenever researchers use NHST they should justify its use, and publish pre-study power calculations and effect sizes, including negative findings. Hypothesis-testing studies should be pre-registered and optimally raw data published. The current statistics lite educational approach for students that has sustained the widespread, spurious use of NHST should be phased out.

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“…Several other fields have engaged in critical, reflexive 100 analysis, including medicine (Greenberg, 2009(Greenberg, , 2011, ecology (Barto and Riollig, 2012) and genetics 101 (Voracek, 2014). These studies have all employed citation network analysis, which applies established 102 mathematical graph theory to the network of citations connecting articles that comprise the core of 103 accepted knowledge in a given discipline.…”

Section: Introduction 78mentioning

confidence: 99%

A citation network analysis of lithic microwear research

Dunmore

Pateman

Key

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science

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How citation distortions create unfounded authority: analysis of a citation network

Abstract: Objective To understand belief in a specific scientific claim by studying the pattern of citations among papers stating it.

Cited by 409 publications

References 295 publications

Long-term Trends of Organic Carbon Concentrations in Freshwaters: Strengths and Weaknesses of Existing Evidence

Long-term Trends of Organic Carbon Concentrations in Freshwaters: Strengths and Weaknesses of Existing Evidence

When null hypothesis significance testing is unsuitable for research: a reassessment

A citation network analysis of lithic microwear research

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