A new code is no weapon against excessive self-citation

We are now so far beyond ethical behaviour that I cannot see it changing. There seems to be no comeback from engaging in dubious practices and even more relevant, no rewards for good practice. Given the ruthless and cutthroat world of academic life, I see little prospect of improvement!

It's not so much self citation as crony intra-lab promotion - where in my experience senior people insist on lab members' work being cited, like seasoning over the almost finished article. Then there's citation as cross group - I'll scratch yours - currency. Equally, if not more unethical, is who isn't cited and presuming that most citation are to promote rather than critique other's work these days. Yet all this glorious documentation lends itself to a rich data science visualisation project.