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Systematic Bias in the Progress of Research

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  • Amir Rubin
  • Eran Rubin

Abstract

We analyze the extent to which citing practices may be driven by strategic considerations. The discontinuation of the Journal of Business (JB) in 2006 for extraneous reasons serves as an exogenous shock for analyzing strategic citing behavior. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we find that articles published in JB before 2006 experienced a relative reduction in citations of approximately 20% after 2006. Since the discontinuation of JB is unrelated to the scientific contributions of its articles, the results imply that the referencing of articles is systematically affected by strategic considerations, which hinders scientific progress.

Suggested Citation

  • Amir Rubin & Eran Rubin, 2021. "Systematic Bias in the Progress of Research," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(9), pages 2666-2719.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/715021
    DOI: 10.1086/715021
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    Cited by:

    1. Kang, Yankun & Leng, Xuan & Liao, Yunxiang & Zheng, Shilin, 2024. "Information disclosure, spillovers, and knowledge accumulation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    3. Rubin, Amir & Rubin, Eran & Segal, Dan, 2023. "Editor home bias?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    4. Teplitskiy, Misha & Duede, Eamon & Menietti, Michael & Lakhani, Karim R., 2022. "How status of research papers affects the way they are read and cited," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(4).
    5. Sebastian Erhardt & Mainak Ghosh & Erik Buunk & Michael E. Rose & Dietmar Harhoff, 2023. "Logic Mill - A Knowledge Navigation System," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 440, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    6. Honglin Bao & Misha Teplitskiy, 2024. "A simulation-based analysis of the impact of rhetorical citations in science," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Andrew Y. Chen & Tom Zimmermann, 2022. "Publication Bias in Asset Pricing Research," Papers 2209.13623, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    8. Lu Liu & Benjamin F. Jones & Brian Uzzi & Dashun Wang, 2023. "Data, measurement and empirical methods in the science of science," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(7), pages 1046-1058, July.

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