It's like citing Bible verses for fundamentalist positivists, so yes. Never mind that the quality of published research itself varies wildly, or that this requ

It's like citing Bible verses for fundamentalist positivists, so yes. Never mind that the quality of published research itself varies wildly, or that this requirement creates an intrinsic tunnel-vision bias toward premature convergence at local maxima. If the measure of veracity is citations, then that creates a network effect, etc. Not saying citations are a bad thing, just that they're not prima facie indicators of truth or rationality.