New project to improve biomedical citation accuracy and integrity

Halil Kilicoglu
Halil Kilicoglu, Associate Professor
Jodi Schneider
Jodi Schneider, Associate Professor

A new project led by Associate Professor Halil Kilicoglu and Associate Professor Jodi Schneider will assist researchers and journals in evaluating citation behavior in biomedical publications. They recently received a two-year, $300,000 grant from the Office of Research Integrity of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for their project, "Natural Language Processing to Assess and Improve Citation Integrity in Biomedical Publications."

While citations play a fundamental role in the diffusion of scientific knowledge and assessment of research on a topic, they are often inaccurate (e.g., citation of nonexistent findings, inappropriate interpretation). This inaccuracy undermines the integrity of scientific literature and distorts the perception of available scientific evidence.

"A recent meta-analysis showed that 25.4 percent of medical articles contained a citation error," said Kilicoglu. "A bibliometric analysis revealed that inaccurate citations of a letter published in 1980 may have contributed to the opioid crisis."

For their project, Kilicoglu and Schneider will develop and validate resources and natural language processing/artificial intelligence models to aid stakeholders in assessing biomedical publications for citation accuracy and integrity. Stakeholders who will benefit from these new models and tools include authors, journals and peer reviewers, research administrators, funders, and policymakers.

"In the long term, these new resources can mitigate the detrimental effects of poor citation practices," said Kilicoglu.

Kilicoglu's research interests include biomedical informatics, natural language processing, knowledge representation, scholarly communication, and scientific reproducibility. Prior to joining the iSchool faculty, Kilicoglu worked as a research scientist at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. He holds a PhD in computer science from Concordia University.

Schneider studies the science of science through the lens of arguments, evidence, and persuasion. Her long-term research agenda analyzes controversies applying science to public policy; how knowledge brokers influence citizens; and whether controversies are sustained by citizens' disparate interpretations of scientific evidence and its quality. Schneider holds a PhD in informatics from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and master's degrees in library and information science from the University of Illinois and mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

iSchool researchers work with diverse groups to improve user experience

iSchool faculty are studying ways to improve user experience, with a common goal of improving technology and applications for the needs of individual users. These researchers are working with diverse groups to gain feedback, and several current projects are focused on experiences for users with disabilities.

Das receives student membership award from ASIS&T

PhD student Puranjani Das has been selected as a recipient of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) SIG CMR Student Membership Award for the 2024-2025 academic year. She will receive a complimentary one-year membership in both ASIS&T and SIG CMR, a special interest group focused on classification and metadata research.

Puranjani Das

Kim defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Jenna Kim successfully defended her dissertation, "Evaluating Pre-Trained Language Modeling Approaches for Author Name Disambiguation," on June 11, 2024.

Jenna Kim headshot

Desai defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Smit Desai successfully defended his dissertation, "Designing Metaphor-fluid Voice User Interfaces," on June 10.

Smit Desai

Student says ‘thank you’ with a helicopter ride

Last month, Michael Ferrer showed appreciation for one of his MSIM instructors in a unique way—by inviting him for an insider’s look at his work as a reservist in the Illinois Army National Guard. For the ILARNG BOSS Lift, which took place on June 18 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, Ferrer selected Michael Wonderlich, iSchool adjunct lecturer and senior associate director of business intelligence and enterprise architecture for Administrative Information Technology Services (AITS) at the University of Illinois.

Michael Wonderlich and Michael Ferrer hold a U of I flag in front of a military helicopter