Iraqi university forcing students to cite its journals to graduate
To earn their degrees, graduate students at the University of Technology in Baghdad not only must publish research in indexed journals. They also are required to cite articles in their school’s own publications. Experts called the citation requirement "deceptive and despicable" and said it could carry a steep price for the journals involved, one of which is indexed in Scopus.
The document Retraction Watch obtained shows the University of Technology has made coercive citation official policy. Master’s students must publish one research paper in a journal indexed in Elsevier’s Scopus or Clarivate’s Web of Science, two influential databases, or two papers in conference proceedings Scopus has indexed, according to the document. Doctoral students must publish two or more works in indexed journals as well as one paper in one of the school’s six titles or a "partner journal". For these articles to be approved by the school, both master’s and Ph.D. students must cite three research papers published in the university’s journals.
Coercive citation is widespread in academia and can help boost the rankings of publications, institutions and individual researchers. The practice is considered unethical and may trigger heavy penalties.
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