It seems like it's being done entirely on the publisher end, with them – or friends – benefiting: > For example, a single researcher who was associated with Te

It seems like it's being done entirely on the publisher end, with them – or friends – benefiting: > For example, a single researcher who was associated with Technoscience Academy benefited from more than 3,000 additional illegitimate citations. Some journals from the same publisher benefited from a couple hundred additional sneaked citations. Perhaps this publisher or others also offer this as some kind of backroom deal / service.