Are 'please cite my paper' emails socially accepted?

Question

I am a PhD student in physics. A few months ago, I submitted a paper (which has meanwhile been accepted, but not yet published). The preprint is on arXiv.

Now, I saw that a few days ago, another manuscript, from a different group, has appeared on the arXiv, and I think there are large parallels. It's not that my work would dramatically alter the interpretation of their conclusions, but I think it would have been appropriate to link the works.

They also have a very broad 'catchy' title on their paper to make it sound spectacular and it seems to me that this title also relates to my work.

I'm not really suspecting conscious malice from the authors or so. But I wonder if I should send one of the authors a link to my paper, or if this is frowned upon.

Answer 1

Emailing them could be acceptable -- and I would even say it should be encouraged! -- but you have to tread very carefully. If you write an email like

Hey Dr. Jones,

I saw your newest paper on arXiv and I noticed you didn't cite [Wouter et al, 2020], do you think you can post an update and cite me?

Wouter

this would come across very poorly, and in general the above email would be socially unacceptable.

Instead, you could follow the following steps:

1. Read the paper carefully to find how it relates. It is likely that you, as an author of the other paper, are overestimating the overlap. There still may be some important overlaps, and reading it carefully will allow you to narrow down on the precise similarities.

   For example, you mentioned that their broad and 'catchy' title overlaps with your paper, but if the actual material does not overlap, then the overlap in the title is probably superficial and doesn't require a citation here.

2. Once you understand the scope of the overlap, consider how many papers there are in this topic. Is this a topic with dozens of papers every year, in both high-quality venues and low-quality venues or arXiv? Or are both of your papers the only ones even addressing this topic? In the former case, I would expect that citing you is wrong (they should instead cite one of the more classic or well-known examples in the literature); in the latter case, I think they should cite you (although given that they didn't, they probably aren't aware of your paper).

At this point there are two cases: either you have determined that there is overlap and they should consider citing you, or you have determined that it's probably fine that they didn't cite you. If you still think they should cite you, then you can proceed to the next steps:

3. See if your advisor or a senior colleague knows this group, and can email them instead. It would be far better to get an email from someone they know about this, rather than some PhD student they haven't heard of.

4. Finally, as a last resort, write the email yourself. But keep the email professional and careful.

   • Don't say that they should cite you; do say they might be interested in your recent work.

   • Do assume that the work was done completely in parallel (it probably was).

   • Don't overstate the overlap or relevance of your work.

   • Don't assert that they have an obligation to be aware of your work; the literature is usually extremely vast, and it is hard to keep up with everything, especially arXiv papers with 0 citations posted a few months ago.

   • If there is another paper, other than yours, that is more representative of the line of work that your paper represents, which they didn't cite, suggest that work instead. And maybe in that case, don't mention your paper at all.

   • Above all, focus on your interest in their work; state that you saw their work and found it interesting; you can even ask questions, see if they have tried method X or considered question Y. Best case scenario, this could be an opportunity for future collaboration (or you could be a postdoc in the group later, etc.)

I think if you follow the above steps and guidelines, the email should be OK. And if they really should cite you, hopefully this diplomatic approach will cause them to do the right thing (the scientifically honest thing) by citing you.

If you decide not to write an email, then what you can do instead is cite their work in the future. Or meet them at a conference. These are more organic ways for awareness across research groups to develop.

Answer 2

I would think that a direct request like that isn't likely to be well received. It is a kind of trolling (in the older sense of the word: Trolling for compliments, Trolling for citations).

But if you want to send the paper and point out that "you may find it relevant to your own work", then it has a completely different tone to it.

And introducing yourself to people with similar interests using your paper as a calling card is useful to do and may result in collaboration in the future.

But a direct request to cite? No. They wrote their paper without it. Why would they simply want to cite it? No.

Answer 3

I think you can be straightforward with highlighting your work - I tend to send emails about related works to authors of new preprints on arxiv (most of the time it is not my personal work I suggest to have a look at, but other people's work).

It is a bit embarrassing to forget to cite a highly relevant paper, so I usually appreciate this type of suggestions if I receive such emails. Adding another citation to a paper is rather easy, and getting an email with suggestions means someone was reading your work and paying attention. Thus, as people mention, make sure that you clearly show that you read the paper.

Answer 4

I don't agree with the other answers. First, one citation is not worth much. The main reason not to ask for citations is that it isn't worth the effort. To get value out of citations as a PhD student, you need hundreds. Later in your career, you need thousands. If you send out targeted emails requesting citations, you would have to send tens of thousands of customized messages to make a difference in your career. That's impractical.

Second, A request for a citation from a student would not come across "poorly" or as a "troll." It would come across as inexperienced behavior which would be normal for a student.

I agree with 6005: "Don't say that they should cite you; do say they might be interested in your recent work." Just state that and briefly state the topic of your work. Other academics will already know you would like to be cited, because in today's metric-driven world everybody would like to be cited.

Answer 5

You could be the next victim of a plagiaristic group - the same as Grigory Perelman

I don't think you should ask for anything. Carefully compare papers and possibly they could be a plagiaristic "predator authors group". They search for preprints which were not yet officially published and kill their publications by publishing the same material first. Grigory Perelman was a target of one Chinese plagiaristic group and luckily he was already famous enough to withstand such attacks on his beautiful scientific works. But this episode with Chinese mathematicians really hurt Grigory's soul as much as he does not want to do math anymore because of such situations.

Do not ask and do not contact plagiarists in any way. Instead contact your publisher as fast as possible. Because the sooner you draw attention to criminal scientific group, the faster they would drop their plagiaristic papers to not get shamed.

The worst possible thing that could happen is if plagiarists will cite you. Like those who were citing G. Perelman while printing his own works. When they cite you, they create a backdoor for walking away prompting that they had a "collaboration".