Editing Elsevier (section)

=== Manipulation of bibliometrics ===

According to the signatories of the [[San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment]] (see also [[Goodhart's law]]), commercial academic publishers benefit from manipulation of [[bibliometrics]] and [[scientometrics]], such as the [[journal impact factor]]. The impact factor, which is often used as a [[Proxy (statistics)|proxy]] of [[Occupational prestige|prestige]], can influence revenues, subscriptions, and academics' willingness to contribute unpaid work.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McKiernan |first1=Erin C. |last2=Schimanski |first2=Lesley A. |last3=Muñoz Nieves |first3=Carol |last4=Matthias |first4=Lisa |last5=Niles |first5=Meredith T. |last6=Alperin |first6=Juan P. |year=2019 |title=Use of the Journal Impact Factor in academic review, promotion, and tenure evaluations |journal=eLife |volume=8 |doi=10.7554/eLife.47338 |pmc=6668985 |pmid=31364991 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, there's evidence suggesting that reliability of published research works in several fields may ''decrease'' with increasing journal rank.<ref name="Brembs2018">{{cite journal |vauthors=Brembs B |year=2018 |title=Prestigious Science Journals Struggle to Reach Even Average Reliability |journal=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |volume=12 |page=37 |doi=10.3389/fnhum.2018.00037 |pmc=5826185 |pmid=29515380 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Nine Elsevier journals, which exhibited unusual levels of [[self-citation]], had their journal impact factor of 2019 suspended from ''[[Journal Citation Reports]]'' in 2020, a sanction that hit 34 journals in total.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Oransky |first1=Ivan |date=29 June 2020 |title=Major indexing service sounds alarm on self-citations by nearly 50 journals |url=https://retractionwatch.com/2020/06/29/major-indexing-service-sounds-alarm-on-self-citations-by-nearly-50-journals/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629225455/https://retractionwatch.com/2020/06/29/major-indexing-service-sounds-alarm-on-self-citations-by-nearly-50-journals/ |archive-date=29 June 2020 |access-date=1 July 2020}}</ref>

In 2023, the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, which is published by Elsevier, was criticized for desk-rejecting a submitted article for the main reason that it did not cite enough articles from the same journal.<ref name="cen23" /><ref name="singh23" />

One of their journals, ''Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis'', was involved in the manipulation of the peer review report.<ref>{{cite web |last=Raman |first=T. R. Shankar |date=4 April 2021 |title=Why I Won't Review or Write for Elsevier and Other Commercial Scientific Journals |url=https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/why-i-wont-review-or-write-for-elsevier-and-other-commercial-scientific-journals/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008034601/https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/why-i-wont-review-or-write-for-elsevier-and-other-commercial-scientific-journals/ |archive-date=8 October 2021 |access-date=5 October 2021 |work=[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]] |location=New Delhi, India}}</ref>