Until recently, journal hijackers do not appear to have targeted titles from big publishers, in part because their well-known website designs made such clones easy to detect.
Typically, cloned versions of journals’ websites are of low quality and don’t resemble the recognizable and professional designs of Springer Nature and Elsevier. As described in previous posts, fraudulent publishers would usually copy the ISSN, title and other metadata of niche and university journals in order to avoid identification, and possibly index their unauthorized content in bibliographic databases such as Scopus or Web of Science.
We’ve cataloged over 300 such cloned journals in the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, a small number of which involve major publishers like Springer Nature, Elsevier and Wiley. For example, earlier this year the Journal of Academic Ethics and Machine Intelligence Research, both published by Springer Nature, were cloned.
But earlier this month, William Black, founder and CEO of PSIref, an online platform aggregating scholarly publication data which offers advertising opportunities for publishers, sent me evidence of a new, more sophisticated scam.
The company “Springer Global Publication” – which is not affiliated with Springer Nature – has published dozens of papers cloning the websites of journals officially published by Elsevier, Springer, the American Medical Association and more. The company had advertised a variety of services on its website, including finding a writer for research papers, editing manuscripts, developing research proposals, analyzing data and managing the peer review process. This collection of services is a classic attribute of a paper mill.
Springer Global Publication did not respond to our request for comment, but after we contacted them, they removed descriptions of their services from their website, as well as links to papers published in cloned journals.
The design of the websites for the cloned journals is strikingly similar to the original journals’ websites, even with pop-ups about allowing cookies.
For example, the following screenshot is of a paper published in Language Sciences. However, the image comes not from an original website, but a cloned one.
The fake version can be identified from the domain name, which is sciencedirects.com, not sciencedirect.com, as in the original Elsevier website.
This screenshot comes from the original journal, for comparison.
In another example, the following screenshot shows a paper published in Educational Technology Research and Development.
The design of this webpage mimics that of the original Springer journal. The only detail revealing the scam is the domain name: springer.uk.com instead of the official springer.com.
The design of the original journal is identical.
All of the papers published by “Springer Global Publications” are assigned DOIs with its own prefix 10.70706, which does not resemble the prefix of either Elsevier or Springer.
Overall, a search through Crossref identified 13 journals to which “Springer Global Publications” has assigned DOIs. All of these journals have similar names to those established by legitimate publishers:
Journals cloned by “Springer Global Publication”
| Title of the journal | Original Publisher | Domain of the cloned journal | Domain of the original journal | Examples of dois assigned to papers in cloned journals |
| Ophthalmology | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.ophtha.2024.15.344 |
| International Journal of Latin-American Religion | Springer | springer.nyc | Springer.com | 10.70706/s41603/9/1/1/01 |
| Evolution and Human Behavior | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.evolhumbehav.2025.46.91910.70706/j.evolhumbehav.2023.44.409 |
| Language Sciences | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.langsci.2025.93178 |
| Fuel | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.fuel.2025.199281 |
| Women’s health issues | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.whi.2023.33.5051 |
| The Surgeon | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.surge.2025.27.116 |
| JAMA Ophthalmology | American Medical Association | jamanetwork.international/ | jamanetwork.com | 10.70706/jamaophthalmol.2024.7197 |
| Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science | Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Inc. | iovs.arvojournals.com/ | iovs.arvojournals.org | 10.70706/iovs.95.15.125 |
| Educational Technology Research and Development | Springer | springer.uk.com | Springer.com | 10.70706/s11423-024-13693-0 |
| Clinical Psychology Review | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.cpr.2024.103890 |
| American Journal of Public Health | American Public Health Association Inc. | ajph.aphapublications.international | ajph.aphapublications.org | 10.70706/AJPH.2024.22017 |
| American Journal of Ophthalmology | Elsevier | Sciencedirects.com | Sciencedirect.com | 10.70706/j.ajo.2024.261.315 |
Source: Crossref data
Ginny Hendricks of Crossref told us the organization would add the questionable DOIs to their list to “investigate and take action.” [Editor’s note: Crossref acquired the Retraction Watch Database last year and funds our efforts to maintain and update it.]
Representatives for Elsevier and Springer Nature both said the publishers take such issues seriously. “We actively work through legal means to shut down fraudulent websites as soon as possible,” the Elsevier spokesperson said.
Springer Nature previously took action to remove fraudulent websites cloning other journals, a spokesperson for the publisher said, and is “currently investigating similar action to address these cases.”
Although this problematic publisher has registered only 13 journals with Crossref, this type of scam allows the publication of papers in an unlimited number of journals from legitimate publishers.
The website of “Springer Global Publication” also lists an additional three journals not registered with Crossref: Springer Global Journal of Literature & Linguistics, Springer Global Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Springer Global Journal of Economics and Management.
The domain of this company was registered on Sept. 18, 2024. Two associated domains, springer.uk.com and sciencedirects.com, were registered on Nov. 11, and Sept. 18, 2024, respectively.
Papers published on the cloned websites appear to have content recycled from other sources. The company will most likely offer to publish papers in legitimate and reputable journals, but submitted papers will instead appear on cloned versions of the websites. This new scam represents high-quality fraudulent websites, with a remarkable resemblance to legitimate ones, capable of deceiving even experienced researchers. Be aware!
With reporting by Ellie Kincaid
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Nice work, Anna.