I think the most plausible explanation is that scientists don’t read the papers they cite
Indeed. Reading an abstract and skimming intro/discussion is as far as it goes in most cases. Sometimes it’s just the title that is enough to trigger a citation. Often it’s “reciting”, copying the references from someone else’s paper on the topic. My guess is that maybe 5% of references in a given paper have actually been read by the authors.
Indeed. Reading an abstract and skimming intro/discussion is as far as it goes in most cases. Sometimes it’s just the title that is enough to trigger a citation. Often it’s “reciting”, copying the references from someone else’s paper on the topic. My guess is that maybe 5% of references in a given paper have actually been read by the authors.