you know, I often encountered this while scouring through scientific article databases. I was a bit intrigued but I never had the interest to further understand why it may happen.
It's probably a bit of both worlds: leveraging on the power of a journal, trying to make a case for the importance of an article.
I would say it's nothing wrong if the research is good, but when non-positive intentions are pursued, it's definitely not a good thing. It would be interesting seeing how this will develop over the years.
Agree! :-) Will be interesting to watch