backscratching
noun1
The act or habit of engaging in a reciprocal beneficial action.
- Near-synonym: logrolling
- She babysits the kids, and we mow her lawn. A little backscratching never hurt anybody!
2
Often Such behavior that is corrupt.
- You have to "tip" the inspector if you want a license in this town. Too much backscratching around here!
- They discovered a citation ring: a group of researchers citing one another inordinately. This backscratching aimed to inflate their article-level metrics and author-level metrics.
- Related terms
- backscratcher, scratch someone's back, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, green handshake, pay-to-play, quid pro quo