Don't fall prey to scams! "Stolen" or "fake" journals

2019-09-25

In today's scientific society, it is generally accepted that publications in journals that are indexed by the science databases of Scopus and Web of Science are valued above all else. The market of scientific journals is very large at present, so depending on the policy of a publishing house, a scientist needs to take into account a large number of criteria when choosing a journal to publish an article:

  • review terms
  • publication terms;
  • indexing of the journal
  • the journal's scientific indicators;
  • the journal's open access policy;
  • price of publication;

it is difficult for a scientist to make the right decision while it is easy to get confused in such a huge variety.

The current situation is abused by fraudsters who offer scientists a variety of services from "publishing in Scopus in 2 weeks" to "write a paper" or "add the author to the paper"

(Source: http://publisher-international.com)

 

But there is a separate type of fraud in order to lure money from gullible scientists: such journals are launched that are very similar to the leading rated publications, but they are not. A detailed report about one of such journals was delivered at the Sixth Kyiv International Scientific-Practical Conference "Scientific communication in the digital age", which was held on March 29‒30, 2018, within the report "Unrealistic discounts for unreal publications – fraud or fraudulent practices?" (the author is Nadezhda Zubchenko, PhD in law, Head of Information and Promotion of the publication activity of scientists Sector, Scientific Library, at the National University "Odessa Law Academy").

 

(Source: http://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/12742/Zubchenko_SCDA18.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)
 
The full text of the report can be found by following the link
 
The report examines one example of a journal, the internet site "Stop Predatory Journals" provides a list of similar copied journals
 
To learn about the list, follow the link
 
However, it should be noted that a given list contains not all unscrupulous journals; in addition, new similar "journals" appear at enviable frequency.  
 
We encourage our authors and readers to be careful not to use the services of scammers; before submitting a paper to the editors of a journal, which is indexed by Scopus and Web of Science, first check the existence of a given journal in the official lists at these resources:

Scopus 

Web of Science