Analysis of ERC-linked publications: accuracy challenges with missing or incorrect grant IDs in acknowledgements

Abstract This study examines the accuracy of funding acknowledgements within publications apparently linked to the European Research Council (ERC). The analysis identifies that only 66% of publications identified as ERC-funded in Scopus are correctly associated with ERC projects within a specific subset of 12,294 publications that were not reported to the ERC database and contain funding text without a grant ID or with an incorrect ID listed. By concentrating on this subset, the study exposes systematic inaccuracies, such as misattribution, typographical mistakes, and incomplete acknowledgements, emphasising the need for improved reporting practices and metadata validation in scientific citation databases. This focused investigation not only quantifies acknowledgement errors but also contributes to the broader discourse on enhancing the reliability of bibliometric indicators, offering valuable insights for researchers, publishers, funding bodies, and bibliometricians.