Citation

Authors are responsible for identifying and documenting relevant citations to support their work. Unethical citation practices constitute a breach of the NASR Act with Integrity policy (see Editorial Policies for journals) and may result in rejection of the manuscript or retraction after publication. Such violations may also be reported to the authors' institutions.

Unethical practices include, but are not limited to:

  • Citation manipulation – e.g., excessive self-citation, gratuitous and unnecessary citation of content published in the journal or book series to which the manuscript has been submitted.

  • Unreliable citations – e.g., irrelevant citations, non-existent or hallucinated references generated by artificial intelligence (AI) tools, improper citations to retracted works.

  • Encouragement of unethical practices – Any attempts by peer reviewers, editors, or other parties to request irrelevant or unnecessary citations should be reported by authors to the publisher.

When preparing a manuscript, authors should:

  • Use a citation to support any statement that relies on external sources of information (i.e., not the authors' own new ideas, findings, or general knowledge).

  • Have read all cited sources and ensure they are accurate and relevant to the statement made in the manuscript.

  • Cite the original work rather than a derivative (e.g., a review article that cites an original work) unless necessary.

  • Aim to include citations from a diverse range of sources, avoiding reliance on a single source (e.g., only from peers, their institution, or a single country).

  • Avoid using an excessive number of citations to support one point unless necessary.

  • Cite sources that have undergone peer review whenever possible.

  • Avoid citing advertisements or advertorial material (e.g., promotional or marketing materials) where possible.

  • Carefully review citations following any use of AI in manuscript preparation, including copy-editing and translation, as AI tools may alter citation text. Using AI to generate citations can lead to non-existent or hallucinated references.

  • Include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the cited source whenever possible.