As a clinical academic deeply involved with dental journals, journalism and writing many scientific articles for more than three decades, I must applaud Dr. Michael Glick on his timely and insightful editorial, "You Are What You Cite: The Role of References in Scientific Publishing" (
JADA 2007;138[1]:12
). His editorial brings to light the many vagaries faced by dental professionals and academics, not only selective self-citation, but also the exclusion of article citations that are already available in the literature.
Indeed, more than two decades ago I wrote a piece in Nature1 stating that, if copying articles is called plagiarism, then the "Purposeful Avoidance" of quoting indexed articles in the literature in order to deceive the reviewers and readers that the author’s own article is groundbreaking should be called "PAgiarism." Alas, the alarming explosion of scientific literature we are witnessing today has led to this state of affairs, though the advances in technology, such as MEDLINE and Google Scholar, offer some respite in this context.
However, at the end of the day, it is the integrity of the writer/researcher that counts. We all have a duty to abide by our professional ethics and not willfully deceive the scientific community, as well as the public at large.
Congratulations to Dr. Glick for highlighting this important, yet often underestimated and forgotten issue, and for "exposing the emperor without his clothes."
TOP
REFERENCES
