Researchers try to get paper published, but publisher asks for paper authors to add citations that weren't used in the research, presumably to increase citations of certain 'blessed' papers.
Authors add the citations, but also a note that the citations were not used and were asked for by the publisher.
If this is all correct, I'm curious what the publisher's relationship is to those cited papers. Were the citations paid for? Something else?
Researchers try to get paper published, but publisher asks for paper authors to add citations that weren't used in the research, presumably to increase citations of certain 'blessed' papers.
Authors add the citations, but also a note that the citations were not used and were asked for by the publisher.
If this is all correct, I'm curious what the publisher's relationship is to those cited papers. Were the citations paid for? Something else?