‘Disbelief’: Researchers, watch out for this new scam involving journal special issues

We’ve seen authors fake peer review by creating fake email addresses, and even companies that use photos of celebrities to lure unsuspecting authors. Now along comes a new scam, this one involving special issues of journals. In “Predatory publishing, hijacking of legitimate journals and impersonation of researchers via special issue announcements: a warning for editors and authors about a new scam,” Jamie Trapp, of Queensland University of Technology, describes what happened when scammers tried to snare the journal he edits — Australasian Physical & Engineering Sciences in Medicine. We asked Trapp to answer a few questions about the scheme.

Retraction Watch (RW): You recently wrote about what you call “a new scam.” Tell us about this scam.

Jamie Trapp (JT): The way that this seems to be working is that special issues will be proposed to real journals. The proposers claim to be a team of researchers who are connected to the proposed topic (the connection can be loose, and the researchers aren’t necessarily from the same exact research area as each other, but there is enough of a connection for it to be a feasible team for the topic). Of course, the researchers are being impersonated.

In the proposal, the bio’s and links to the impersonated researcher’s online profiles are used, which are real. The only difference is that the email addresses used have slight changes from that of the real researcher being impersonated (e.g. [email protected] might be changed to [email protected] ). Therefore, any correspondence using the fake email address, or any reply to the original email goes to the impersonators.

If the proposal is accepted, then the special issue announcement goes ahead, linked to the bio’s of real researchers, but with the announcement inadvertently using the faked email address. From this point onwards, the fraudsters have a valid special issue announcement, in a real journal, but using their fake email address.

Presumably, interested authors will then contact via the given email addresses, at which time the fraudsters can then advise the authors to submit manuscripts and coerce fees (or whatever) for the privilege. Perhaps they might even go so far as to set up a fake online manuscript submission form.

RW: What was your reaction when you first realized what was happening?

JT: Disbelief. We’ve had quite a few approaches for special issues recently, but one came through that not only impersonated people known to members of our editorial board, but who very competently answered a long list of questions about obtaining submissions, publicizing the special issue, review papers, timings etc. Normally, proposals don’t stand up to these questions and aren’t accepted, however on this occasion the questions were answered well. It was only when we were contacted by one of the actual people who was being impersonated that it came to light.

RW: What does this new scam bring to the table?

JT: This is yet another avenue amongst many dishonest activities in the modern world. Instead of hijacking journals via fake websites, this new scam involves using real journals and real people to appear more convincing.

RW: The scam involves Special Issues. Are those a particularly rich target for some reason?

JT: Fraudsters will try anything, and special issues are just another method amongst many to separate people from their money. The attractiveness of special issues is that a real journal (and its resources) and real researchers can be used to give a greater impression of validity for the deception. 

RW: What steps do you recommend journals and authors take to avoid falling victim to this scam?

JT: For authors, if considering submitting to a special issue, make sure that the journal is actually a real journal and that the website is the real website for the journal. If you are making an enquiry about the special issue, independently check the email address of the person you are contacting, even if the announcement is on the journal’s official website i.e. obtain the email address from the special issue editor’s online profile instead of using the email address given in a special issue announcement. Most importantly, if you are paying open access fees, only do it via the publisher’s system, do not follow any instructions given by email unless from the publisher. Moreover, journals should not be charging compulsory fees for special issue articles, and reconsider submitting to any journal that does.

For all researchers, regularly do a web search of your own name to ensure that you have not been impersonated. Impersonations can potentially do great damage to your reputation.

For editors, carefully check special issue proposals, even if you know the proposers. Do not reply directly to proposers unless outright rejecting the proposal. If interested, or seeking further information, search for the proposers on the web and contact them via the email given on their institutional profile, rather than replying directly to the proposal email or the address given in the proposal.

Overall, as an editor, I have made the decision to discontinue special issues. For this journal there is little to be gained from special issues and stopping them reduces the enablement of the scam. If the decision is changed in the future and Phys Eng Sci Med publishes any special issues, they will be announced via an editorial published in the journal, with page numbers and a doi, and therefore indexed on the major publishing databases. That way, authors can independently check that the announcement is real via a search on Scopus, Web of Science etc. If an announcement is seen, but not found on these databases, then it is a fake announcement.

Perhaps it’s time for the development of some guidelines or an agreement on practices that journals undertake to avoid these scams, similar to the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). It may be difficult to agree on a lot of specific items, however things such as not having special issues (or announcing them only via editorials with a doi and page numbers), statements refusing email submission of manuscripts, clear advertisement of open access fee payment procedures (if applicable) etc would be a good starting point.

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