Citation Cartel

A citation cartel is a network of researchers who systematically cite each other's work to inflate their citation metrics, regardless of whether the citations are intellectually warranted. The practice is a direct consequence of the publish-or-perish regime and the academic incentive structure, where citation counts serve as proxies for research impact and are used in hiring, promotion, and funding decisions.\n\nCitation cartels are a form of network manipulation: they exploit the topological properties of citation networks to create artificial clusters of high centrality. The practice is not always explicit or conspiratorial; it can emerge from disciplinary insularity, mutual admiration, or the simple fact that researchers in the same subfield naturally cite each other. What distinguishes a cartel from ordinary citation practice is the systematic inflation of metrics through citation exchanges that would not occur in an unbiased evaluation. The phenomenon is one of many ways in which the systemic incentive structure of science corrupts its epistemic function.\n\n\n