An agency selling journal authorship under the name 'Springer' goes offline after a Retraction Watch exposé

Retraction Watch reported on 16 October 2026 that the website of Springer Journals Online, an agency offering authorship slots in articles in exchange for payment, went offline four days after Retraction Watch published its investigation. The agency had solicited researchers with services including securing authorship in articles intended for journals published by Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley and SAGE, among others. Springer Nature told Retraction Watch it has no connection to the agency and is working with the relevant authorities.

What it means Selling authorship corrupts the literature that AI systems and reviewers rely on, so citations tied to agencies like this need extra scrutiny.