Paper on ‘citation gaming’ causes national debate

Italy’s researchers citing dramatically more papers written by their colleagues since research evaluation exercise introduced

Italy’s researchers are citing dramatically more papers written by their colleagues since the introduction of the country’s research evaluation exercise in 2010, a study has shown.

The evaluation exercise relies largely on citation databases, leading the authors of the study, which was published on 11 September in PloS One, to flag what they call a “peculiar Italian trend”. The research team, led by Albero Baccini, an economist at the department of economics and statistics at Università di Siena, describes a “generalised strategic use of citations in the Italian scientific community, both in the form of strategic author self-citations and of citation clubs”.