Spanish rector ‘created citation factory to boost reputation’

The rector of a Spanish university and collaborators from his research group established a “citation factory” to artificially inflate their bibliometric standings, a newly published report alleges.

The Spanish Committee on Research Ethics, an advisory body to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, commissioned a report on the publication activity of the computer scientist Juan Manuel Corchado, rector of the University of Salamanca, in the wake of media reports by Retraction Watch and El País.

Report authors Emilio Delgado López-Cózar and Alberto Martín Martín conclude that Professor Corchado, who was appointed Salamanca rector in May, had employed “questionable publishing practices”, exploiting an “extensive” academic network “aimed at producing publications and citations” in order to “shine” in researcher rankings.

Salamanca declined to comment and Professor Corchado did not respond to Times Higher Education’s request for a response. In May, the university said in a statement that the rector “defend[ed] his honourability and scientific integrity”, while Professor Corchado told local media this week that “this is a matter that is already past for me”.

Professor López-Cózar and Dr Martín Martín found that publications by Professor Corchado and his associates “massively and irregularly” referenced papers by the rector and members of the BISITE (bioinformatics, intelligent systems and educational technology) research group, which the rector directs. The authors also highlighted “unnatural” citations of papers published in the journal Professor Corchado edits, ADCAIJ: Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal.

This “irregular” referencing was detected in works published in the University of Salamanca’s academic repository, known as Gredos; publications edited by university publisher Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca; papers published on ResearchGate; and conference proceedings published by Springer Nature. THE has contacted Springer Nature for comment.

The platforms were linked by two characteristics, the report found: they either “exercised little or no editorial control” over the works published, or “editorial control was in the hands of members of the BISITE group or other members of the University of Salamanca”.

The report authors also point to incidences of “excessive citation” in which “dozens or even hundreds of references” were cited “to support a single statement”. They also highlighted Professor Corchado’s scientific hyperproductivity, noting that he published more than 80 papers in 2018.

Analysing the Salamanca rector’s public Google Scholar profile, which has since been deleted or made private, the authors found that, in 2016, he had fewer than 4,000 citations, ranking at 1,095 among Spanish scientists with an h-index of 33. By March 2024, Professor Corchado had more than 44,000 citations, with his rank rising to 157th and his h-index reaching 108.

Professor López-Cózar and Dr Martín Martín say their findings imply “a deliberate coordination to cite the works of Professor Corchado and the ADCAIJ journal”, raising “serious concerns about academic ethics within the BISITE group”.

They further point to “concealment of information” after media reports on the case came out, including apparent deletion of documents from Gredos, ResearchGate and Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and the disappearance of the rector’s Google Scholar profile.

The authors conclude that, as a result of the “manipulation” of references, the bibliometric standings of Professor Corchado and other academics in the BISITE research group “offer[ed] overestimated indicators of scientific production and impact” that were not “true to reality”.

Salamanca commissioned an independent investigation into Professor Corchado earlier this year, upon the request of the Spanish Committee on Research Ethics. After receiving the resulting report this month, however, the committee stated that it “represent[ed] a missed opportunity to clarify this situation” and reiterated “the need for thorough and impartial verification”.

Speaking to the newspaper Salamanca Hoy, Professor Corchado said: “We have complied with all the orders that have been given to us by the ministry. The independent expert committee appointed by the governing council has given its opinion and I respect it.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com