Authenticity of paid citation solicitation emails

Ascertain whether solicitation emails offering payment to authors in exchange for adding citations to specified articles represent genuine citation-purchasing services or are scams.

Background

Prior reports have surfaced of emails offering authors money to include citations to particular works. The authors note uncertainty about whether such solicitations are legitimate or fraudulent, which affects understanding of the prevalence and mechanisms of citation manipulation.

While the paper demonstrates the possibility of purchasing citations through one vendor, it does not resolve the broader question of whether previously reported solicitation emails themselves were scams.