An examination of hijacked journals: a comprehensive study

Abstract

[eng] The academic publishing landscape is increasingly being marred by the emergence of hijacked and predatory journals, posing a significant threat to the integrity of scholarly communication. These journals exploit the openaccess model, charging authors exorbitant fees while failing to provide the rigorous peer-review process that is the hallmark of reputable academic publishing (Gallent and Comas, 2022). Predatory journals often employ deceptive tactics to attract unsuspecting authors, such as falsely advertising impact factors and mimicking the names of well-established journals (da Silva et al., 2022). The issue is further exacerbated by the proliferation of unsolicited academic spam emails from these predatory entities, as highlighted in a recent study by Sureda et al. (2022). Hijacked journals represent an even more insidious form of this deception. These fraudulent publications create counterfeit websites that impersonate legitimate academic journals, duping authors into submitting their work under the guise of a reputable platform (Abid and Yousif, 2022). Our study aims to delve deeper into these deceptive practices, focusing on hijacked and predatory journals indexed in Cabell's Predatory Reports. By shedding light on these practices, we hope to equip researchers with the knowledge to identify and avoid such predatory entities, thereby safeguarding the integrity of academic publishing.