Journal hijacking

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.[1][2][3] The term hijacked journal may refer to either the fraud[4] or the legitimate journal.[5] The fraudulent journals are also known as "clone journals".[6] Similar hijacking can occur with academic conferences.[2][7]

## Background

[edit]

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.[2]

The first journal to be hijacked was the Swiss journal Archives des Sciences. In 2012 and 2013, more than 20 academic journals were hijacked.[1] In some cases, scammers find their victims in conference proceedings, extracting authors' emails from papers and sending them fake calls for papers.[8]

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.[3][9]

## List of hijacked journals

[edit]

There are several hundred documented cases of journal hijackings; hijacked journals with existing Wikipedia articles include:[10][11]

* Academy of Management Annals
* Arctic
* Australian Journal of Herpetology
* Aut Aut
* Bothalia: African Biodiversity & Conservation
* British Journal of Canadian Studies
* Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
* Chelonian Conservation and Biology
* Comptes Rendus de l'Académie Bulgare des Sciences
* Entomologist's Gazette
* Epistemologia
* Iheringia
* International Journal of Central Banking
* International Journal of Multicultural Education
* Jökull
* Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research
* Journal of Natural Products
* The Journal of Psychology
* Journal of Psychology & Theology
* Journal of Scientific Temper
* Journal of the IEST
* Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology
* Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology
* Levant
* Natural History
* The Nautilus
* Novy Mir
* Organization Development Journal
* Positif
* Pragmatics
* Preslia
* Research-Technology Management
* Salmagundi
* Scandia
* Social Evolution & History
* Specialusis Ugdymas
* Sylwan
* The Veliger
* Wulfenia
* Ymer

## See also

[edit]

* Category:Hijacked journals
* Cybersquatting
* Confidence trick
* Passing off
* Predatory open access publishing

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Butler, Declan (27 March 2013). "Sham journals scam authors". Nature. 495 (7442): 421–422\. Bibcode:2013Natur.495..421B. doi:10.1038/495421a. PMID 23538804.
2. ^ a b c Jalalian, Mehrdad; Mahboobi, Hamidreza (2014). "Hijacked Journals and Predatory Publishers: Is There a Need to Re-Think How to Assess the Quality of Academic Research?". Walailak Journal of Science and Technology. 11 (5): 389–394.
3. ^ a b McCook, Alison (19 November 2015). "Can journals get hijacked? Apparently, yes". Retraction Watch.
4. ^ Danevska, Lenche; Spiroski, Mirko; Donev, Doncho; Pop-Jordanova, Nada; Polenakovic, Momir (1 November 2016). "How to Recognize and Avoid Potential, Possible, or Probable Predatory Open-Access Publishers, Standalone, and Hijacked Journals". Prilozi. 37 (2–3): 5–13\. doi:10.1515/prilozi-2016-0011. PMID 27883329.2–3&rft.pages=5-13&rft.date=2016-11-01&rft_id=info:doi/10.1515/prilozi-2016-0011&rft_id=info:pmid/27883329&rft.aulast=Danevska&rft.aufirst=Lenche&rft.au=Spiroski,+Mirko&rft.au=Donev,+Doncho&rft.au=Pop-Jordanova,+Nada&rft.au=Polenakovic,+Momir&rft_id=https://doi.org/10.1515%2Fprilozi-2016-0011&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Journal+hijacking" class="Z3988">
5. ^ Menon, Varun G. (18 July 2018). "How are Predatory Publishers Preying on Uninformed Scholars? Don't Be a Victim". Online Educational Symposium Series. IGI Global.
6. ^ Asim, Zeeshan; Sorooshian, Shahryar (13 January 2020). "Clone journals: a threat to medical research". Sao Paulo Medical Journal. 137 (6): 550–551\. doi:10.1590/1516-3180.2018.0370160919. PMC 9754270. PMID 31939492.
7. ^ Kolata, Gina (7 April 2013). "For Scientists, an Exploding World of Pseudo-Academia". The New York Times.
8. ^ Dadkhah, Mehdi; Quliyeva, Aida (2015). "Social Engineering in Academic World". Journal of Contemporary Applied Mathematics. 4 (2): 3–5.
9. ^ Bohannon, John (19 November 2015). "Feature: How to hijack a journal". Science. doi:10.1126/science.aad7463.
10. ^ "Beall's list of potential predatory journals and publishers". Beall's List. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
11. ^ "Retraction Watch Hijacked Journals Checker". Google Docs. Retrieved 27 July 2024.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Jalalian, Mehrdad; Dadkhah, Mehdi (2015). "The full story of 90 hijacked journals from August 2011 to June 2015". Geographica Pannonica. 19 (2): 73–87\. doi:10.5937/geopan1502073j. ISSN 0354-8724.
* Abalkina, Anna (21 June 2021). "Detecting a network of hijacked journals by its archive". Scientometrics. 126 (8): 7123–7148\. arXiv:2101.01224. doi:10.1007/s11192-021-04056-0. ISSN 0138-9130. S2CID 230523913.

## External links

[edit]

* American librarian Jeffrey Beall's hijacked journal and authentic journal list
* Hijacked Journal Checker

This Internet-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template