[j2kun]

I'm not blaming anything on anything, because I did not (nor did the authors) confirm the cause of any of these errors.

> I don't share your view that hallucinated citations are less damaging in background section.

Who exactly is damaged in this particular instance?

[bjourne]

Trust is damaged. I cannot verify that the evidence is correct only that the conclusions follow from the evidence. I have to rely on the authors to truthfully present their evidence. If they for whatever reason add hallucinated citations to their background that trust is 100% gone.

[j2kun]

You are speaking in the abstract. Did you read this paper? I suspect you did not.