Puitika is committed to ensuring that citations and references are accurate, relevant, verifiable, and ethically justified. All authors, editors, editorial board members, and peer reviewers must uphold citation practices that promote intellectual integrity, acknowledge scholarly contributions, support the verification of claims, and prevent citation manipulation.
Authors’ Responsibilities
Authors must appropriately acknowledge all sources of ideas, arguments, theories, data, findings, quotations, and other intellectual contributions used in their manuscripts. All citations and references must be accurate, traceable, consistent with the journal’s Author Guidelines, and relevant to the claims they support.
Authors must verify references against original sources or reliable bibliographic records whenever possible, ensure that cited sources substantiate the associated statements, and accurately represent the sources’ findings and arguments. Fabricated references, invented quotations, misleading attributions, and the misrepresentation of primary or secondary sources are unacceptable.
Authors should prioritize relevant original research where appropriate, clearly identify preprints and unpublished materials when cited, and avoid citing retracted publications except when discussing the retraction itself. AI-generated material must not be treated as an authoritative scholarly source, and all references generated or suggested by AI tools must be independently verified in accordance with the journal’s AI Usage Policy.
Self-Citation and Citation Relevance
Self-citation is acceptable when justified by the scholarly relevance of an author’s previous work. However, excessive or unjustified self-citation, honorary citations, and the inclusion of irrelevant references intended solely to increase citation counts are prohibited.
References must be selected on the basis of their genuine contribution to the manuscript, not to promote particular authors, editors, reviewers, journals, institutions, or other interests. The journal does not impose a universal numerical limit on self-citation; each case will be assessed in its scholarly context.
Editors’ and Reviewers’ Responsibilities
Editors, editorial board members, and peer reviewers must not require or pressure authors to cite their own publications, the journal’s publications, or the publications of affiliated individuals or journals solely to increase citation metrics.
Recommendations to add, remove, or modify citations must be based on clear scholarly reasons, including relevance, accuracy, completeness, or the need to engage with significant literature. Legitimate citation recommendations must not be made a condition of acceptance for reasons unrelated to scholarly merit.
Editors must exercise independent judgment when evaluating citation recommendations and ensure that editorial decisions are not influenced by personal interests or citation-based performance indicators.
Prohibition of Citation Manipulation
Citation manipulation includes, but is not limited to:
- Excessive or unjustified self-citation.
- Coercive citation requests.
- The deliberate inclusion of irrelevant references to inflate author or journal citation counts.
- Honorary citation practices.
- Coordinated citation arrangements among authors or journals.
- Citation cartels established to manipulate bibliometric indicators.
Such practices constitute unacceptable publication conduct when undertaken to distort citation metrics rather than to advance scholarly communication. All parties involved in the publication process must refrain from engaging in, facilitating, or knowingly permitting citation manipulation.
Editorial Assessment and Consequences
Puitika assesses citation accuracy, relevance, and consistency during initial editorial screening and, where appropriate, throughout peer review and after publication. Suspected citation manipulation, fabricated references, or other unethical citation practices will be assessed in accordance with the journal’s Allegations of Research and Publication Misconduct policy.
The journal distinguishes inadvertent bibliographic errors from serious negligence and intentional misconduct. Allegations will be evaluated fairly, impartially, confidentially to the extent reasonably possible, and proportionately to the evidence and seriousness of the concern.
Depending on the findings, editorial actions may include requests for correction or revision, rejection of a submitted manuscript, referral to a relevant institution or authority, or appropriate post-publication action, including correction, an expression of concern, or retraction.
Authors’ Accountability
All authors remain responsible for the integrity and accuracy of the citations and references in their manuscripts, including those recommended by editors or reviewers or generated or suggested through AI-assisted tools. By submitting a manuscript to Puitika, authors acknowledge their obligation to comply with this policy and all other applicable journal policies.
Policy References
This policy is informed by the relevant guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).