Citation Integrity and Anti-Manipulation Policy

Commitment to Ethical Bibliometric Practices

REMUNOM – Revista Multidisciplinar do Nordeste Mineiro is firmly committed to maintaining the highest standards of editorial integrity, transparency, and ethical publishing practices.

The journal explicitly prohibits any form of citation manipulation and ensures that bibliometric indicators reflect genuine scholarly impact rather than artificial inflation.

REMUNOM recognizes that citation metrics — including citation counts, h-index, and other impact indicators — must arise organically from scientific relevance and methodological contribution.

Core Principles

1. Prohibition of Coercive Citation

REMUNOM strictly prohibits coercive citation practices.

Authors will never be required or pressured to cite articles published in REMUNOM as a condition for acceptance, revision, or publication.

Editorial decisions are made solely on scientific merit, methodological rigor, and relevance to the journal’s scope.

2. Scientifically Justified Citation Recommendations

When reviewers or editors suggest additional references, such recommendations must be:

Scientifically justified;
Directly relevant to the manuscript’s theoretical or methodological framework;
Free from institutional or strategic motivations.

Citation suggestions aimed at artificially increasing journal metrics are not permitted.

3. Prevention of Citation Stacking and Citation Cartels

REMUNOM does not engage in or tolerate:

Citation stacking between journals;
Coordinated citation exchanges;
Citation cartels;
Any systematic practices designed to manipulate citation-based indicators.

The journal maintains independence from informal or formal citation networks that may distort bibliometric integrity.

4. Monitoring of Self-Citation Rates

REMUNOM conducts periodic internal monitoring of journal self-citation rates to ensure they remain within acceptable and ethically defensible standards.

If elevated self-citation levels are detected, corrective editorial measures are implemented, including:

Review of editorial citation recommendations;
Reinforcement of reviewer guidance;
Increased emphasis on diversified international referencing.

Self-citation is recognized as a legitimate scholarly practice when scientifically justified; however, it must never become systematic or strategic.

5. Editorial Accountability and Transparency

Members of the editorial board and peer reviewers are instructed to:

Avoid recommending unnecessary citations to REMUNOM;
Prioritize internationally recognized and methodologically relevant literature;
Base all bibliographic recommendations on objective scientific criteria.

Any indication of citation manipulation will be formally reviewed and may result in removal from editorial or reviewer roles.

Alignment with International Indexing Standards

This policy is aligned with internationally recognized best practices in scholarly publishing and reflects the ethical expectations commonly evaluated in major indexing systems.

REMUNOM affirms that long-term credibility and indexation sustainability depend on: