6. Our advice

6.1 Beware of self-proclaimed opinion leaders

Various fraudulent or deceptive practices associated with bibliometric measurements can artificially increase a researcher's importance. These ethically reprehensible practices include abusive self-citation designed to enhance a researcher's visibility, cross-citations between researchers who cite each other excessively, publications in large numbers but of low quality in so-called "predatory" journals, plagiarized or duplicated articles...

In addition to bibliometric measurements, the mainstream media and social networks can also serve as platforms for self-proclaimed opinion leaders.

Expertise and influence need to be finely measured, and this can be both arduous and time-consuming....