{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T20:04:09Z","timestamp":1787169849090,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,20]],"date-time":"2026-02-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771545600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["lww.com","ovid.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper examines the challenges in academic publishing related to authorship inflation, citation bias, and the overreliance on quantitative metrics to evaluate research impact. Authorship inflation, including \u201cgift authorship,\u201d occurs when individuals with minimal contributions are listed as co-authors, often due to institutional or political norms, inflating academic profiles without reflecting actual input. The study also discusses how citation patterns differ across disciplines, with high-citation fields like biomedical sciences benefiting from larger, faster publications, while researchers in humanities or social sciences may be overlooked despite producing impactful work. The \u201cMatthew Effect\u201d further exacerbates this disparity as highly cited researchers continue to accumulate citations regardless of their contributions. Geographical and institutional biases also play a role, with researchers from high-income countries or prestigious institutions often receiving more recognition than those from low-income regions. The paper highlights how large collaborative works, such as the Human Genome Project or COVID-19 studies, can distort citation metrics and create inequalities in recognition. It proposes solutions such as transparent authorship roles, normalized citation metrics, and focus on qualitative assessments in hiring and promotion processes to address these issues and promote a more equitable academic environment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4103\/ijcm.ijcm_9_25","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,20]],"date-time":"2026-02-20T07:00:14Z","timestamp":1771570814000},"page":"229-232","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1097\/lww.0000000000001000","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Challenges in Academic Authorship and Citation Metrics: Navigating Inflation, Biases, and the Rise of Evidence Synthesis"],"prefix":"10.4103","volume":"51","author":[{"given":"Sudip","family":"Bhattacharya","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Samiksha","family":"Bhattacharjee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sunil Kumar","family":"Panigrahi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ananda","family":"Datta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pulmonary Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Soumi","family":"Kundu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Indranil","family":"Das","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Transfusion Medicine and Blood Bank, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anirban","family":"Ganguly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"276","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"R2-20260416","first-page":"479","article-title":"Honorary authorship in radiologic research articles: Assessment of frequency and associated factors","volume":"259","author":"Eisenberg","year":"2011","journal-title":"Radiology"},{"key":"R3-20260416","first-page":"438","article-title":"The contributions of authors to multiauthored biomedical research papers","volume":"271","author":"Shapiro","year":"1994","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"key":"R4-20260416","first-page":"47","article-title":"Differences in citation patterns across areas, article types and age groups of researchers","volume":"9","author":"Mendoza","year":"2021","journal-title":"Publications"},{"key":"R5-20260416","first-page":"220334","article-title":"Citation counts and journal impact factors do not capture some indicators of research quality in the behavioural and brain sciences","volume":"9","author":"Dougherty","year":"2022","journal-title":"R Soc Open Sci"},{"key":"R6-20260416","first-page":"248","article-title":"Inflated co-authorship introduces bias to current scientometric indices","volume":"75","author":"Masic","year":"2021","journal-title":"Med Arch"},{"key":"R7-20260416","first-page":"56","article-title":"The matthew effect in science: The reward and communication systems of science are considered","volume":"159","author":"Merton","year":"1968","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"R8-20260416","first-page":"4887","article-title":"The Matthew effect in science funding","volume":"115","author":"Bol","year":"2018","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci USA"},{"key":"R9-20260416","first-page":"104058","article-title":"On the Matthew effect in research careers","volume":"123","author":"Feichtinger","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Econ Dyn Control"},{"key":"R10-20260416","first-page":"e003758","article-title":"How global is global health research? 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