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Hijacked journals in Scopus
Anna Abalkina,
Free University of Berlin,
abalkina@gmail.com
Abstract
This is the first attempt to create the list of hijacked journals which compromised data or
content in the international citation database Scopus (see Appendix 1). There is evidence of
numerous cases of penetration of such journals in national and international citation databases
(Abalkina 2020, Abalkina 2021, Al-Amr 2020, Khosravi & Menon 2019, Memicevic 2018). The
share of hijacked content in the profiles of individual countries could reach a significant share. For
example, non-authentic content by scholars from Uzbekistan reached 41.5% of all papers indexed
in Scopus from this country in 2021, in Iraq - 8,4%, in India -1,5% (Abalkina 2021). Such
indexation of hijacked content increases the risk of deception of potential authors who choose the
journal based on the indexation criteria.
When the hijacked content is detected in Scopus, this non-authentic content is deleted. But
this procedure is not transparent because Scopus doesn’t keep the list of hijacked journals nor
register withdrawn content. The creation of such a list of hijacked journals in Scopus increases the
awareness of journal hijacking which is important for research integrity. I invite researchers to
comment on the list of hijacked journals. If you are aware of other cases of hijackers in Scopus,
please, send me details to abalkina@gmail.com.
Bibliography
1. Abalkina, A. (2020a). The case of the stolen journal. Retraction Watch, July 7. URL:
https://retractionwatch.com/2020/07/07/the-case-of-the-stolen-journal/
2. Abalkina, A. (2021). How hijacked journals keep fooling one of the world’s leading databases.
Retraction Watch.
3. Al-Amr, M. (2020). How did content from a hijacked journal end up in one of the world’s most-
used databases? Retraction Watch. September 1. URL: https://retractionwatch.com/2020/09/01/how-did-
content-from-a-hijacked-journal-end-up-in-one-of-the-worlds-most-used-databases/
4. Khosravi, M., Menon, V. (2019). Reliability of Hijacked Journal Detection Based on
Scientometrics, Altmetric Tools and Web Informatics: A Case Report Using Google Scholar, Web of
Science and Scopus. DOI:10.36227/techrxiv.11385849
5. Memicevic, H. (2018). In Web of Science We Trust. A Case of a Hijacked Journal Indexed in
Scopus. ISSI Newsletter, #53, Volume 14, Number 1.
Appendix 1
Hijacked journals in Scopus
Hijacked journal
URL (clone)
Authentic journal
Illegitimate
content in
Scopus
Homepage
link to the
clone
website in
Scopus
Year
Comments
Annals of the Romanian
Society for Cell Biology
http://annalsofrscb.ro/
Annals of the Romanian Society
for Cell Biology
+
+
2021
Abalkina (2021)
Content is not
deleted
Converter
http://www.converter-
magazine.info/
Converter
+
+
2021
Abalkina (2021)
Content is not
deleted
International Journal of
Advanced Science and
Technology
http://sersc.org/journals/index.p
hp/ijast
The authentic journal
“International Journal of
Advanced Science and
Technology” was not identified.
But the domain
http://sersc.org/journals/index.php
/ijast is very likely to be a hijacker
+
+
2020
Content is not
deleted
International Journal of
Control and Automation
http://sersc.org/journals/index.p
hp/ijca
The authentic journal
“International Journal of Control
and Automation” was not
identified. But the domain
http://sersc.org/journals/index.php
/ijca is very likely to be a hijacker
+
+
2020
Content is not
deleted
Journal of Engineering
Technology
www.joetsite.com
Journal of Engineering
Technology
+
n/a
2017-
2018
Khosravi &
Menon (2019)
Journal of Talent
Development and Excellence
http://iratde.com
Talent Development and
Excellence
+
n/a
2020
Abalkina (2020)
La Prensa Medica Argentina
https://www.scitechnol.com/la-
Prensa Medica Argentina
+
n/a
n/a
prensa-medica.php
Linguistica Antverpiensia
https://www.hivt.be/linguistica
Linguistica Antverpiensia
+
No homepage
2021
Content is not
deleted
Solid State Technology
https://www.solidstatetechnolog
y.us/
Solid State Technology
+
n/a
2020
Sport Science
http://www.sposci.com/
Sport Science
+
+
2020
Content is not
deleted
Technology Reports of
Kansai University
https://www.kansaiuniversityrep
orts.com/
Technology Reports of Kansai
University
+
n/a
2020
Test Engineering &
Management
https://testmagzine.biz/
Test Engineering and
Management
+
+
2019-
2020
Some content is
not deleted
Transylvanian Review
http://transylvanianreviewjourna
l.org/
Transylvanian Review
+
No homepage
2018-
2020
Al-Amr (2020)
Turkish Journal of Computer
and Mathematics Education
(TURCOMAT)
https://turcomat.org/
Turkish Journal of Computer and
Mathematics Education
+
The link
redirects to the
website where
in English
version there
is a link to the
clone website.
The Turkish
version
doesn’t have
such a link
2021
Turkish Journal of
Physiotherapy and
Rehabilitation
https://turkjphysiotherrehabil.or
g/
Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy
and Rehabilitation
+
No homepage
2021
Content is not
deleted
Turkish Journal of
Psychology
http://www.turkpsikolojidergisi.
org
Turkish Journal of Psychology
+
n/a
2017
Memisevic
(2018)
Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu
http://www.wthtjsjs.cn/
Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu
+
+
2020