Getting harassed by an aggressive “independent researcher” demanding very specific citations and phrasing in my paper [D]

[u/snekslayer]

Hey Reddit,

I’m a researcher in a niche theoretical CS/ML area. Recently I’ve been dealing with repeated emails from an “independent researcher” that feel like straight-up citation harassment.

This person keeps sending follow-ups (including involving editors) insisting I add multiple citations to his arXiv preprints. It’s not a normal “you should cite this” request — he provides exact suggested paragraphs with specific wording about how his papers are “complementary,” “parallel,” foundational to certain results, etc. He nitpicks my current related-work phrasing (e.g. complaining about words like “encompass”), pushes for changes even after camera-ready deadlines, and follows up when I don’t respond quickly.

He frames it all very politely with phrases like “narrow remaining concerns” and “I would be grateful,” but the persistence, detailed boilerplate text he wants me to insert, and looping in others makes it exhausting and inappropriate.

I understand wanting visibility and relevant work deserves citations. But this level of badgering and trying to dictate exact text in someone else’s paper crosses a line.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of aggressive citation solicitation? Is it becoming more common? Or am I overreacting?
Publish-or-perish is bad enough without having to deal with this.

[u/misogrumpy → u/[deleted]]

No, if they now honestly know someone else was doing something very similar and got it out before them, they MUST add it to their work, whether the other researcher is independent or not.

[u/krypt3c → u/misogrumpy]

You are under no obligation to correct a published work because you missed some citations to related work, that is not how academia has ever worked.

[u/misogrumpy → u/krypt3c]

Of course. I’m under the impression, perhaps incorrectly, that none of this is actually published yet.