DAI Shifeng Received Massive Citations Through More Special Issues
Previously, our investigation [1] revealed that DAI Shifeng from the China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), as a guest editor, received a large number of citations via the topical collection "Critical Metals and Minerals in Coal and Coal Combustion Products" published in the MDPI journal "Minerals". Our further investigations show that similar citation patterns exist in other topical collections and special issues.
Another topical collection, "Toxic Mineral Matter in Coal and Coal Combustion Products", contains 16 published articles. A total of 345 references in these articles were co-authored by DAI. Of these 16 articles, 5 articles (about 31%) included at least 30% of references co-authored by him. The corresponding proportions reached 48% and 46% in articles [2] and [3], respectively.
For the special issue "Minerals in Coal", 23 articles were published, from which DAI received a total of 305 citations. Among these 23 articles, 9 articles (approximately 39%) contained more than 30% references co-authored by DAI. The highest proportion was found in article [4], at 54%.
These patterns raise concerns regarding the necessity of such citations and whether these citation practices have been inappropriately manipulated.
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