Citation Manipulation Policy

The Asian Educational Therapist is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and rejects all forms of citation manipulation. 

Citation Manipulation Includes:

  • Excessive self-citation by authors solely to inflate personal citation counts.

  • Excessive citation of the journal’s own articles (journal self-citation) to artificially boost journal metrics.

  • Coercive citation (e.g., editors or reviewers requiring citations to their own work or the journal’s articles as a condition of acceptance).

  • Citation stacking or honorary citations unrelated to the scholarly content of the manuscript.

 

Acceptable Self-Citation
Limited self-citation is acceptable when genuinely relevant to the research (e.g., building on previous work in a coherent research programme). However, self-citations should not exceed 20% of the total references.

 

Consequences
Manuscripts found to contain manipulative citation practices may be rejected or retracted. Editors or reviewers engaging in coercive citation may have their roles terminated.

The journal follows COPE guidelines on citation manipulation. All editors and reviewers are expected to uphold the integrity and independence of the peer review process.