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journal hijacking

{{Short description|Predatory journal that impersonates an academic journal}}

Journal hijacking refers to the brandjacking of a legitimate academic journal by a malicious third party. Typically, the imposter journal sets up a fraudulent website for the purpose of offering scholars the opportunity to rapidly publish their research online for a fee. The term hijacked journal may refer to either the fraud{{cite journal |last1=Danevska |first1=Lenche |last2=Spiroski |first2=Mirko |last3=Donev |first3=Doncho |last4=Pop-Jordanova |first4=Nada |last5=Polenakovic |first5=Momir |title=How to Recognize and Avoid Potential, Possible, or Probable Predatory Open-Access Publishers, Standalone, and Hijacked Journals |journal=Prilozi |date=1 November 2016 |volume=37 |issue=2–3 |pages=5–13 |doi=10.1515/prilozi-2016-0011|pmid=27883329 |doi-access=free }} or the legitimate journal.{{cite web |last=Menon |first=Varun G. |date=18 July 2018 |title=How are Predatory Publishers Preying on Uninformed Scholars? Don't Be a Victim |work=Online Educational Symposium Series |publisher=IGI Global |url=https://www.igi-global.com/symposium/ }} The fraudulent journals are also known as "clone journals".{{cite journal |last1=Asim |first1=Zeeshan |last2=Sorooshian |first2=Shahryar |title=Clone journals: a threat to medical research |journal=Sao Paulo Medical Journal |date=13 January 2020 |volume=137 |issue=6 |pages=550–551 |doi=10.1590/1516-3180.2018.0370160919|pmid=31939492 |pmc=9754270 |doi-access=free }} Similar hijacking can occur with academic conferences.{{cite web |last1=Kolata |first1=Gina |title=For Scientists, an Exploding World of Pseudo-Academia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?_r=2& |website=The New York Times |date=7 April 2013}}

Background

In 2012, cyber criminals began hijacking print-only journals by registering a domain name and creating a fake website under the title of the legitimate journals.{{cite journal |url=http://wjst.wu.ac.th/index.php/wjst/article/view/1004 |title=Hijacked Journals and Predatory Publishers: Is There a Need to Re-Think How to Assess the Quality of Academic Research? |journal=Walailak Journal of Science and Technology |year=2014 |volume=11 |number=5 |pages=389–394 |first1=Mehrdad |last1=Jalalian |first2=Hamidreza |last2=Mahboobi}}

The first journal to be hijacked was the Swiss journal Archives des Sciences. In 2012 and 2013, more than 20 academic journals were hijacked.{{cite journal |last1=Butler |first1=Declan |title=Sham journals scam authors |journal=Nature |date=27 March 2013 |volume=495 |issue=7442 |pages=421–422 |doi=10.1038/495421a |pmid=23538804|bibcode=2013Natur.495..421B |doi-access=free }} In some cases, scammers find their victims in conference proceedings, extracting authors' emails from papers and sending them fake calls for papers.{{cite journal |last1=Dadkhah |first1=Mehdi |last2=Quliyeva |first2=Aida |title=Social Engineering in Academic World |journal=Journal of Contemporary Applied Mathematics |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=3–5 |year=2015}}

There have also been instances of journal hijacking wherein hijackers take over the journal's existing domain name after the journal publisher neglects to pay the domain name registration fees on time.{{cite web |url=http://retractionwatch.com/2015/11/19/can-journals-get-hijacked-apparently-yes/|title=Can journals get hijacked? Apparently, yes|first=Alison|last=McCook|date=19 November 2015|work=Retraction Watch}}{{cite journal |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/feature-how-hijack-journal|journal=Science|title=Feature: How to hijack a journal|first=John|last=Bohannon|date=19 November 2015|doi=10.1126/science.aad7463}}

List of hijacked journals{{anchor|List}}

There are several hundred documented cases of journal hijackings; hijacked journals with existing Wikipedia articles include:{{cite web |title=Beall's list of potential predatory journals and publishers |url=https://beallslist.net/hijacked-journals/ |website=Beall's List |access-date=27 July 2024}}{{cite web |title=Retraction Watch Hijacked Journals Checker. |url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ak985WGOgGbJRJbZFanoktAN_UFeExpE/edit?gid=5255084#gid=5255084 |website=Google Docs |access-date=27 July 2024}}

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See also

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite journal | last1=Jalalian | first1=Mehrdad | last2=Dadkhah | first2=Mehdi | title=The full story of 90 hijacked journals from August 2011 to June 2015 | journal=Geographica Pannonica | volume=19 | issue=2 | year=2015 | issn=0354-8724 | doi=10.5937/geopan1502073j | pages=73–87| doi-access=free }}
  • {{cite journal |last=Abalkina |first=Anna |author-link=Anna Abalkina |title=Detecting a network of hijacked journals by its archive |journal=Scientometrics |volume=126 |issue=8 |date=2021-06-21 |issn=0138-9130 |doi=10.1007/s11192-021-04056-0 |pages=7123–7148 |arxiv=2101.01224 |s2cid=230523913}}

External links

  • American librarian Jeffrey Beall's [https://web.archive.org/web/20151207233414/http://scholarlyoa.com/other-pages/hijacked-journals/ hijacked journal and authentic journal list]
  • [https://retractionwatch.com/2022/05/29/want-to-know-whether-that-journal-is-scamming-you-introducing-the-retraction-watch-hijacked-journal-checker/ Hijacked Journal Checker]

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}

Category:Internet fraud

Category:Academic publishing

Category:Deception

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