Scientific Scholarship and Impact Factors

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/04/10/ emergence-of-a-citation-cartel A case in point is a review of interleukin-2 (IL-2) that I was asked to review recently. After reading the manuscript, before agreeing to undertake the review, I told the editor who contacted me that I felt that there were numerous instances where the authors were selective in their choice of references, favoring their own work over those of others, and that I felt that the review needed major revisions. The journalist-editor assured me that he was extremely interested in my opinion, even so. Moreover, he also wanted the review within 7 days, because the journal wanted to include the review in their next issue, which was going to press very soon. Scholarship in science is made easier than other fields because there is a written record of articles that allows the writer, the journal reviewer, and the reader to verify statements in any article by referring to the original publication. In this particular instance, I called attention to the very first sentence of the manuscript, which stated: