Hijacked Journals: How to Identify a Fake Journal Website

Step-by-step hijacked journal check

1. Record the exact title and ISSN shown on the website.
2. Search the ISSN in an independent bibliographic source.
3. Identify the legitimate publisher, society or institution associated with the journal.
4. Compare the official publisher’s link with the domain asking for submissions.
5. Check whether indexing databases link to the same journal identity and publisher.
6. Look for inconsistent contact addresses, newly created submission portals or abrupt changes in APCs.
7. Search the journal title together with terms such as “fake website”, “hijacked” or “counterfeit” and assess the credibility of the sources you find.

The quickest identity check

Start with the journal’s exact title and ISSN, then find the journal through an independent record such as the ISSN Portal, NLM Catalog, DOAJ, Scopus Sources or Web of Science Master Journal List when relevant. Compare the website shown there with the site that contacted you. A copied journal title is easy to imitate; a consistent trail across independent records is much harder to fake.

Warning signs of a counterfeit journal site

• A domain unrelated to the known publisher or learned society.
• A journal that historically had no author-fee model suddenly asking for payment through an unfamiliar account.
• Copied editorial-board names but different contact emails.
• Issue archives that begin abruptly or contain articles inconsistent with the authentic journal.
• Submission instructions that exist only on the suspicious domain.
• Claims that the journal is “official” without a verifiable link from the institution or publisher that owns the title.

If you already submitted or paid

Save the email headers, invoice, payment record, submitted manuscript and screenshots of the website. Contact the legitimate journal or publisher through an independently verified address. If payment fraud may be involved, contact your payment provider promptly and follow your institution’s research-integrity or legal guidance.

Historical hijacked-journal list

The archived list below is useful for research and screening, but counterfeit domains can change quickly. Treat historical examples as evidence of the method rather than as a complete current directory. Always repeat the identity check at the time you are considering submission.

How a hijacked journal differs from a predatory journal

A predatory or deceptive journal may be a real publishing operation with its own title and website. A hijacked journal is different: the fraud depends on impersonating an existing legitimate journal. That means a researcher can verify the authentic journal and still be deceived if they submit through the wrong domain. Domain verification is therefore central to this problem.

When possible, follow links from the genuine publisher, scholarly society, university, national library or recognized indexing service instead of searching the title and clicking the first result.

Check the payment request as carefully as the journal

Counterfeit sites often become most obvious at the payment stage. Compare the recipient name, bank country, invoice identity and email domain with the verified publisher. A mismatch deserves investigation before any transfer. Academic publishing can involve third-party payment processors, so a mismatch is not automatic proof of fraud, but the journal should be able to explain it clearly.