How Citation Distortions Create Unfounded Authority¶
Greenberg, S. A. (2009). How Citation Distortions Create Unfounded Authority: Analysis of a Citation Network. BMJ, 339.
Cited by¶
3 citations across 3 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Differential Decay
- Citation drift: a numerical claim survives in secondary literature after the qualifier that conditioned it is dropped — "up to N%" becomes "N%" becomes "is N%."
This sourceDocuments citation transmutation — the conversion of a qualified hypothesis into asserted fact as the qualifier is dropped across the secondary literature.
- Citation drift: a numerical claim survives in secondary literature after the qualifier that conditioned it is dropped — "up to N%" becomes "N%" becomes "is N%."
- Empirical No-Failure Anchor
- A value quoted downstream without its sample size, endpoint, and sensitivity has been laundered rather than confirmed, and the confidence readers place in it grows with circulation while its actual support does not.
This sourceTraces how repeated citation of a claim detached from its supporting data converts a weakly supported statement into an accepted fact without any new evidence being produced.
- A value quoted downstream without its sample size, endpoint, and sensitivity has been laundered rather than confirmed, and the confidence readers place in it grows with circulation while its actual support does not.
- Trusted Intermediary Compromise
- Intelligence and academia. Trusted-insider compromise, where the channel propagating "trusted" information is itself the attack surface; and citation laundering, where a flawed finding is inherited through a chain of re-citation without re-verification.
This sourceShows a flawed claim inheriting authority through chains of re-citation without re-verification — citation laundering across a trusted channel.
- Intelligence and academia. Trusted-insider compromise, where the channel propagating "trusted" information is itself the attack surface; and citation laundering, where a flawed finding is inherited through a chain of re-citation without re-verification.
Verification¶
This reference passed the adversarial substantiation pipeline: it was checked to exist and to support the claim it is attached to. See how references were verified.
Registry ID ref:2de5425864cd · see in the full table