The latest release (Vol. 11 No. 11s, 2023) of it Russian Law Journal contains an eclectic mix of topics: ethical practices of dentists in Puna, a study of customer satisfaction with Decathlon products, the communist movement in Korea between 1910 and 1948, a study of the work-life balance of employees of Hyundai Motors India, and 28 more papers that, judging by the title, have nothing to do with Russian law.
It Russian Law Journal therefore no longer exists. It will stop publishing surveys in 2021.
The magazine’s site has been ‘hijacked’. Not hacked, because the domain name russianlawjournal.org expired at the end of 2022 and at that time anyone was free to buy the domain name. In early 2023, another site was launched on the domain name, with seemingly the same content as before, a scientific journal titled Russian Law Journal. The site features calls for paper submissions, ethical guidelines, and a section explaining how peer review works. In a featured block on the homepage: “We are pleased to inform you that Russian Law Journal now has reached Q2 Rank in Scopus and Q3 rank in ESCI” (published on January 28, 2023).
It happens at more sites of scientific journals. These are often domain names of discontinued magazines, or domain names that came up for sale because the real magazine changed domain name. The fake versions use identification numbers of the real magazines and publish with the usual metadata to appear as real as possible. Researcher Anna Abalkina has been following the hijacking problem for some time for the blog Retraction Watch, and decided last year to make a list. There are now 205 journals in the ‘Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker’.
Publish quickly
Recently added: Lampyrid. The beginning of May discovered researcher Nick Wise that on the site of this niche magazine (subtitle: journal of bioluminescent beetle research) the light is on again. It really existed, from 2012 to 2018. The website has recently returned, but now it is about ‘all topics’ under that title. Publication is possible in ten days and the title is included in Web of Science, a search engine for scientific research with a citation index.
Rapid publishing and inclusion in referencing databases such as Web of Science or Scopus is what makes the hijacked journals interesting for the honest-to-goodness researchers eager to move up the ranks quickly. It is extremely important for scientists to build up a good reputation by publishing as much as possible, in as highly regarded journals as possible, and collecting as many references to your research as possible.
It is of course a revenue model for the hijackers. For example, publishing in a fake version costs Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology $200 per paper. In 2021, the magazine ‘published’ more than 5,000 articles, Abalkina counted, with which the fake publisher earned a million.