Journal hijacking refers to the
brandjacking
Brandjacking is an activity whereby someone acquires or otherwise assumes the online identity of another entity for the purposes of acquiring that person's or business's brand equity. The term combines the notions of 'branding' and 'hijacking', and ...
of a legitimate
academic journal
An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...
by a malicious third party. Typically, the imposter journal sets up a fraudulent website for the purpose of offering
scholars
A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a terminal ...
the opportunity to rapidly publish their research online for a
fee
A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom (and previously the Republic of Ireland) receive a fee in contrad ...
.
[ The term hijacked journal may refer to either the fraud or the legitimate journal. The fraudulent journals are also known as "clone journals". Similar hijacking can occur with academic conferences.][
]
Background
In 2012, cyber criminals
Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cybercriminals may explo ...
began hijacking print-only journals by registering a domain name and creating a fake website under the title of the legitimate journals.scammer
A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibili ...
s find their victims in conference proceedings
In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings are a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confer ...
, extracting authors' emails from papers and sending them fake calls for papers.
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.
List of hijacked journals
There are several hundred documented cases of journal hijackings; hijacked journals with existing Wikipedia articles include:Arctic
The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
''
* ''Australian Journal of Herpetology
The Wells and Wellington affair was a dispute about the publication of three papers in the ''Australian Journal of Herpetology'' in 1983 and 1985. The periodical was established in 1981 as a peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on the study ...
''
* '' Aut Aut''
* '' Bothalia: African Biodiversity & Conservation''
* ''British Journal of Canadian Studies
The British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS) is a membership-based academic association that is also a registered UK charity. BACS was founded in 1975 in order to promote Canadian studies in the United Kingdom. Along with the establish ...
''
* ''Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
The ''Bulletin of Hispanic Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Liverpool University Press for the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Liverpool. It was founded by Edgar Allison Peers
Edgar Allison ...
''
* ''Chelonian Conservation and Biology
''Chelonian Conservation and Biology: International Journal of Turtle and Tortoise Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on freshwater turtles, marine turtles, and tortoises ( Order Testudines). It was established in 1 ...
''
* ''Comptes Rendus de l'Académie Bulgare des Sciences
The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (abbreviated BAS; , ''Bŭlgarska akademiya na naukite'', abbreviated БАН) is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869.
The Academy, with headquarters in Sofia, is autonomous and consists of a S ...
''
* ''Entomologist's Gazette
The ''Entomologist's Gazette'' was a British entomological journal. It contained articles and notes on the biology, ecology, distribution, taxonomy and systematics of all orders of insects, but with a bias towards Lepidoptera.
It was produced quar ...
''
* ''Epistemologia
''Epistemologia'' was a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy. It was focused on analytical philosophy, publishing articles that deal with philosophy of science, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. ...
''
* ''Iheringia
''Ilheringia'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal composed of two series dealing with zoology and botany
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anat ...
''
* ''International Journal of Central Banking
The International Journal of Central Banking (IJCB) is an open-access economic academic journal, research journal that began publication in 2005 after the decision of several Central Banks to create a professional journal for policymakers and rese ...
''
* ''International Journal of Multicultural Education
The ''International Journal of Multicultural Education'' (IJME) is a peer-reviewed open access academic journal published by the Loeb School of Education at Eastern University ( St. Davids, Pennsylvania, United States
The United States of ...
''
* '' Jökull''
* ''Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
''
* ''Journal of Natural Products
The ''Journal of Natural Products'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of research on the chemistry and/or biochemistry of naturally occurring compounds. It is co-published by the American Society of Pharmacognosy ...
''
* ''The Journal of Psychology
''The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied'' is a bimonthly double-blind, peer-review psychology journal published by Taylor & Francis. ''The Journal of Psychology'' was founded in 1935 by Carl Murchison, an American psychologis ...
''
* ''Journal of Psychology & Theology
The ''Journal of Psychology & Theology'' (JPT) is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Biola University's Rosemead School of Psychology and has been operating continuously since 1973. JPT is a quarterly journal publishing original research ...
''
* '' Journal of Scientific Temper''
* ''Journal of the IEST
The ''Journal of the IEST'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official publication of the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST). It covers research on simulation
A simulation is an imitative representation of a ...
''
* ''Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology
The ''Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published in two parts, ''A'' and ''B'', by the American Institute of Physics on behalf of the American Vacuum Society. It was established in 1964 and the editor ...
''
* '' Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology''
* ''Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
''
* ''Natural History
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
''
* ''The Nautilus
''Nautilus'' is the fictional submarine belonging to Captain Nemo featured in Jules Verne's novels ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (1870) and '' The Mysterious Island'' (1875).
Description
''Nautilus'' is described by Verne as ...
''
* ''Novy Mir
''Novy Mir'' (, ) is a Russian-language monthly literary magazine.
History
''Novy Mir'' has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It was supposed to be modelled on the popular pre-Soviet literary magazine ''Mir Bozhy'' ("God's World"), w ...
''
* '' Organization Development Journal''
* '' Positif''
* ''Pragmatics
In linguistics and the philosophy of language, pragmatics is the study of how Context (linguistics), context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship ...
''
* '' Preslia''
* '' Research-Technology Management''
* ''Salmagundi
Salmagundi (alternatively salmagundy or sallid magundi) is a cold dish or salad made from different ingredients which may include meat, seafood, Egg as food, eggs, cooked and raw vegetables, fruits, or Pickling, pickles. In English culture, the ...
''
* ''Scandia
Scandza was described as a "great island" by Gothic-Byzantine historian Jordanes in his work ''Getica''. The island was located in the Arctic regions of the sea that surrounded the world. The location is usually identified with Scandinavia.
Jor ...
''
* ''Social Evolution & History
''Social Evolution & History'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the development of human societies in the past, present, and future. In addition to original research articles, ''Social Evolution & History'' includes critical notes an ...
''
* '' Specialusis Ugdymas''
* '' Sylwan''
* ''The Veliger
''The Veliger'' was a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering malacology. The journal was established in 1958 and published its last issue in September, 2014. It was published by the California Malacozoological Society and Northern California ...
''
* '' Wulfenia''
* '' Ymer''
See also
* :Hijacked journals
* Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.
The term is derived ...
* Confidence trick
A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irrespons ...
* Passing off
Passing off is a common law tort which can be used to enforce unregistered trade mark rights. The tort of passing off protects the Goodwill (accounting), goodwill of a trader from misrepresentation.
The law of passing off prevents one trader f ...
* Predatory open access publishing
Predatory publishing, also write-only publishing or deceptive publishing, is an exploitative academic publishing business model, where the journal or publisher prioritizes self-interest at the expense of scholarship. It is characterized by misle ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
* American librarian Jeffrey Beall
Jeffrey Beall is an American librarian and library scientist who drew attention to "predatory open access publishing", a term he coined, and
created Beall's list, a list of potentially predatory open-access publishers. He is a critic of the o ...
'
hijacked journal and authentic journal list
Hijacked Journal Checker
Internet fraud
Academic publishing
Deception
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