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"From relevant authors" is such a cowardly review. Either give me the citation to the work you want me to cite or keep quiet. So often as a reviewer I have avo

"From relevant authors" is such a cowardly review. Either give me the citation to the work you want me to cite or keep quiet. So often as a reviewer I have avoided asking for citation of my own work, even if highly relevant, as I perceive that to be an abuse of power. I've also started a comedic collection of terrible reviews I've received, though it took me 15 years to gain the confidence to know when these are an indication of the reviewer's failings, not mine.

Veen 6y ago
> often as a reviewer I have avoided asking for citation of my own work, even if highly relevant, as I perceive that to be an abuse of power. That's noble, but isn't it counter-productive? If you're reviewing a paper whose readers would ultimately benefit from a citation of your work, then would the paper not be improved by citing it?
- sideshowb 6y ago
  Sure if it's worth breaching anonymity for. Last time this happened I recommended about 5 things one of which was mine. I guess it's the more borderline cases I lose sleep over.
  - papeda 6y ago
    I'm surprised that many people automatically assume "you should cite this paper" means "you should cite my paper". I tell reviewers to cite papers all the time. They're almost never my own papers. They're just relevant papers. I think there is some aspect here of just finding reasons to dislike the reviewer (though I've certainly had reviewers where those reasons were pretty easy to find).
    - sideshowb 6y ago
      Agreed, I certainly don't think any request to cite X means the reviewer wrote it. But when there's a vague request to cite more without any indication of what (and sometimes a vague request to cite more on a rather niche topic tangential to the paper being reviewed) I would suspect the reviewer of trying to get their own work mentioned without saying so directly. Because if you know the field well enough to know what literature is missing, then it doesn't take you a moment to paste a couple of citations into your review.

Veen 6y ago

> often as a reviewer I have avoided asking for citation of my own work, even if highly relevant, as I perceive that to be an abuse of power. That's noble, but isn't it counter-productive? If you're reviewing a paper whose readers would ultimately benefit from a citation of your work, then would the paper not be improved by citing it?

sideshowb 6y ago
Sure if it's worth breaching anonymity for. Last time this happened I recommended about 5 things one of which was mine. I guess it's the more borderline cases I lose sleep over.
- papeda 6y ago
  I'm surprised that many people automatically assume "you should cite this paper" means "you should cite my paper". I tell reviewers to cite papers all the time. They're almost never my own papers. They're just relevant papers. I think there is some aspect here of just finding reasons to dislike the reviewer (though I've certainly had reviewers where those reasons were pretty easy to find).
  - sideshowb 6y ago
    Agreed, I certainly don't think any request to cite X means the reviewer wrote it. But when there's a vague request to cite more without any indication of what (and sometimes a vague request to cite more on a rather niche topic tangential to the paper being reviewed) I would suspect the reviewer of trying to get their own work mentioned without saying so directly. Because if you know the field well enough to know what literature is missing, then it doesn't take you a moment to paste a couple of citations into your review.