Gaming the metrics : misconduct and manipulation in academic research
How the increasing reliance on metrics to evaluate scholarly publications has produced new forms of academic fraud and misconduct. The traditional academic imperative to “publish or perish” is increasingly coupled with the newer necessity of “impact or perish”—the requirement that a publication have...
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| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | eBook Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge
MIT Press
2020
The MIT Press |
| Edition: | 1 |
| Series: | Infrastructures |
| Subjects: | |
| ISBN: | 9780262537933, 0262537931, 9780262356565, 0262356562 |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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Table of Contents:
- Intro -- Contents -- Introduction: Metrics and the New Ecologies of Academic Misconduct -- Beyond Truth and Falsehood: Innovation in Manipulation -- Redefining Publication and Evaluation -- From Content to Metadata -- Are Journals Becoming Mints? -- Emergent Objects, Emergent Manipulations -- Ways of Gaming -- Fake Is No Longer What It Used to Be -- New Evidence, New Watchdogs -- Notes -- References -- I. Beyond and Before Metrics -- 1. Gaming Metrics Before the Game: Citation and the Bureaucratic Virtuoso -- "Fun and Games with Citations" -- Notes -- References -- 2. The Transformation of the Scientific Paper: From Knowledge to Accounting Unit -- The Classic Cycle of Accumulation of Symbolic Capital -- The Multifarious Effects of Research Evaluation -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 3. Playing and Being Played by the Research Impact Game -- REF2014 and Impact -- The Impact Case Study as an Accounting Unit -- Evidence of Impact and Solicited Testimony -- Meta-Gaming -- Qualitative Commensuration -- Impact and the Logic of Auditability -- Conclusions: From Traces to Metrics -- Notes -- References -- 4. The Mismeasurement of Quality and Impact -- Notes -- References -- 5. Taking Goodhart's Law Meta: Gaming, Meta-Gaming, and Hacking Academic Performance Metrics -- References -- II. Collaborative Manipulations -- 6. Global University Rankings: Impacts and Applications -- The Ranking Game -- Examples of Resistance -- Rankings as a Form of Transnational Policy Coordination -- Conclusions -- References -- 7. Predatory Publishing and the Imperative of International Productivity: Feeding Off and Feeding Up the Dominant -- Taking the Imperatives to the Extreme -- Cui Bono? -- Notes -- References -- 8. Pressures to Publish: What Effects Do We See? -- Two Empirical Blows to the Pressures-to-Publish Narrative
- Salami-Slicing Collaborations and Sandwiching Results as Alternative Gaming Strategies -- References -- 9. Ghost-Managing and Gaming Pharmaceutical Knowledge -- Publication Planning -- Speaker Programs and Other KOL Activities -- A Citation Puzzle -- Conclusion: Multiple Leverage Points -- References -- III. Interventions: Notes from the Field -- 10. Retraction Watch: What We've Learned and How Metrics Play a Role -- References -- 11. PubPeer: Scientific Assessment Without Metrics -- Notes -- 12. The Voinnet Affair: Testing the Norms of Scientific Image Management -- Rethinking Misconduct Through High-Visibility Affairs -- Public Critiques and the Mediatization of the "Voinnet Affair" -- The Institutions React -- Conclusion -- Postscript -- Notes -- References -- 13. Crossing the Line: Pseudonyms and Snark in Post-Publication Peer Review -- Prologue-How I Got into This Mess -- The Blog -- The Legal Threats -- The Aftermath -- Notes -- References -- 14. Ike Antkare, His Publications, and Those of His Disciples -- Introduction -- The SCI Generators -- Where to Find Fake Papers and What For -- Google Scholar and Ike Antkare -- Randomly Generated Papers Make It Through Peer Review -- Hijacked Journals -- SCIgen Detection -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 15. Fake Scientists on Editorial Boards Can Significantly Enhance the Visibility of Junk Journals -- Notes -- 16. Altmetrics Gaming: Beast Within or Without? -- The Anxiety of Gaming -- An Initial Characterization of Gaming -- Altmetrics Gaming -- Data Integrity: The Real Altmetrics Issue -- Concluding Reflections -- Notes -- References -- 17. Why We Could Stop Worrying About Gaming Metrics If We Stopped Using Journal Articles for Publishing Scientific Research -- Conclusions -- References -- IV. Mimicry for Parody or Profit
- 18. Making People and Influencing Friends: Citation Networks and the Appearance of Significance -- Notes -- References -- 19. Crack Open the Make Believe: Counterfeit, Publication Ethics, and the Global South -- Public Harm and Denunciation -- Looking at the "Authentic" -- Ethics Can Be Counterfeited Too -- Notes -- References -- 20. Fake Archives: The Search for Openness in Scholarly Communication Platforms -- Scholarly Brands -- arXiv vs. viXra -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 21. Humor, Hoaxes, and Software in the Search for Academic Misconduct -- Carnivalesque Watchdogs -- Mocking Authority: The Postmodernism Generator -- Spamming and SCIgen -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Acknowledgments -- Contributors -- Index