impact factor manipulation

Impact factor manipulation involves strategies used by some researchers or publishers to artificially boost the perceived importance of a journal. This often includes practices like excessive self-citations, where articles in the journal cite other articles from the same journal, or publishing a high volume of review articles, which tend to cite more sources. The goal is to increase the journal's citation count and, consequently, its impact factor—a measure of how frequently articles are cited. Manipulating this metric can give a false impression of a journal’s influence, potentially misleading researchers and affecting academic rankings.