Phenomenon and manifestation of the `Author's Effect of Showcasing' (AES): a literature science study, I. Emergence, causes and traces of the phenomenon in the literature, perception and notion of the effect

Abstract

The `Author's Effect of Showcasing' (AES) is the activity of publishing authors who shape by free will the formal reference stock of their communications cited directly and item by item, placing this formal reference stock into the showcase of science — consciously or unconsciously. This first paper of the study demonstrates the emergence, causes and traces of the AES phenomenon in the journal literature of the natural sciences already in the mature Little Science age, and the continuous existence of the phenomenon ever since. The perception and cognition of the effect is shown on the basis of the relevant findings of the present author's previous, manual fact-finding reference investigations based on autopsy, processing around 27,600 journal communications and reference stocks containing more than 322,000 citations. Finally, a summarizing definition of the notion of the effect is given. In a second paper, the manifestation of the AES phenomenon will be demonstrated and analysed in the theoretically most homogeneous domain of the scientific literature.

Phenomenon and manifestation of the `Author's Effect of Showcasing' (AES): a literature science study, II. Very heterogeneous documentedness of historically synchronous conference communications of a single natural science

“…The thesis of the existence of the 'Author's Effect of Showcasing' was supported in detail by findings of previous relevant investigations and publications of the present author; the causes and nature of the AES phenomenon were demonstrated in the journal literature of the natural sciences [1]. However, a decisive control test meeting all the requirements of verification theory had not been carried out.…”

“…The formal reference stock is a function of the widely differing personal referencing will and methods of the authors, therefore its quantity also differs widely. In the first paper of this study [1] the AES phenomenon, its emergence, causes and traces in the elite journal literature of natural sciences were shown and the notion of the effect was defined. Then, to settle the question of the existence of the AES phenomenon and to demonstrate the nature of the formal reference stock and documentedness of the elite primary scientific communications, a decisive control test was carried out in the currently theoretically most homogeneous domain of the scientific literature: in conference communications of a single natural science, synchronous in the view of science history.…”

“…Since the nature and effectiveness of 'indirect-collective referencing' has also been revealed and published, it now appears sufficient to investigate in the source volumes of the research material only the existence and frequency of the ICR phenomenon existing or not existing at the entirely free referencing will of the publishing author: taking into account the communications containing one or more ICR acts. Since there has not yet been an examination of those two additional referencing phenomena -referencing to 'review' works and 'for example' referencingwhich also owe their existence solely to the publishing author within the frame of the AES phenomenon, a few examples of which were presented in the present author's previous paper [1], it now appears more important to examine these in the research material. An investigation directed at all these phenomena has been carried out; the results are shown in Table 11.…”

“…It would seem that the arbitrariness of these authors is manifested precisely in their The ICR connection of this one exceptional communication was explored, to determine not only the 'formal' but also the 'real-total' reference stock and documentedness of the communication. The work cited together with its reference stock in [1] above is the following: In reality the reference stock of the Angulo communication comprises not one, but 58 references, and its real-total documentedness is 58 times greater than the formal documentedness taken into account in other reference investigations. Finally: the ICR reference act of Angulo, the object of which was nine years old, is functionally correct -and the fact that it is only one single reference is the consequence of the author's will.…”

“…In the first paper of the study [1], the phenomenon of the 'Author's Effect of Showcasing' (AES), its emergence, causes and traces in the literature, and the perception and notion of the effect, were revealed. This effect is the activity of the publishing researchers as authors with which they shape by their own free will the size and composition of the full reference stock of their communications, and then out of this they choose and lift out those items to which they refer in a direct and itemized way, consciously or unconsciously placing this formally cited stock of references into the showcase of science.…”