Hijacked journals: how to tell a clone from the real journal

A hijacked journal is a fake website that copies the identity of a real, often well-indexed journal: the same title, the same ISSN, sometimes even the same editorial board names and cover design. Authors who believe they are submitting to the real journal pay a publication fee, receive a quick “acceptance”, and later find that their paper appears nowhere the real journal is indexed. The original journal never saw the manuscript.

This is different from an ordinary predatory journal, which invents its own name. A clone borrows a reputation that took years to build, which is why it fools experienced researchers as well as first-time authors. The good news is that a hijack usually falls apart once you check a few independent sources rather than trusting the website in front of you.

How hijacking usually works

Hijackers tend to target journals that have a strong indexing record but a weak online presence: a print-first title, a society journal with an outdated website, or a journal whose domain registration has lapsed. They set up a polished site, list the journal as “Scopus indexed” or “UGC-CARE listed”, and then send bulk emails inviting submissions with fast turnaround. In some cases they have bought an expired domain that once belonged to the real journal, so old links and search results point straight to them.

Because the journal title and ISSN are real, checking the name alone in an index tells you nothing. The question is never “Is this journal indexed?” but “Is this website the journal that is indexed?”

Seven checks to tell a clone from the real journal

1. Find the website from the index, not from the email. Search the journal in Scopus Sources or the Web of Science Master Journal List and follow the homepage link given there, or the publisher link. Compare that domain, character by character, with the one in your invitation. Clones often use a near-identical domain with an added word, a hyphen or a different ending.
2. Check the ISSN record. Look up the ISSN on the ISSN Portal (portal.issn.org). The record shows the official title, country and publisher. If the website lists a different publisher, country or contact address, treat that as a serious warning.
3. Look at recent articles inside the index. Open the journal’s latest issues as they appear in Scopus or Web of Science and pick two or three article titles. Then search for those titles on the website you were given. If the site’s “current issue” contains papers that never appear in the index, or the indexed papers are missing from the site, you are probably on a clone.
4. Test the DOIs. Real journals register DOIs for their articles. Paste a DOI from the suspect site into doi.org. A fake DOI will not resolve, or it will resolve to a different journal or publisher. A missing DOI is not proof of a hijack on its own, but a broken or borrowed one is.
5. Search the hijacked journal databases. Retraction Watch maintains a free Hijacked Journal Checker that lists known clones alongside the legitimate sites. In India, UGC-CARE also published lists of cloned journals in past years, and many university research cells keep their own copies. A match in any of these is enough to stop.
6. Contact the real journal directly. Use the email address from the publisher’s site or the ISSN record and ask whether they have received your manuscript or sent an invitation. Legitimate editors are used to these questions and usually reply quickly when a clone is involved.
7. Watch the money trail. Requests to pay a personal bank account, a UPI ID with an individual’s name, a wallet, or “processing charges” before peer review are strong signs of fraud. Real publishers invoice through an official system, and fees are stated publicly on the journal’s own pages.

Red flags on the website itself

None of these prove a hijack on their own, but several together should make you stop and run the checks above:

• Promises of acceptance within days, or review times that are far shorter than the journal’s published record.
• A homepage that leads with indexing badges, impact factor claims or “UGC approved” banners rather than aims and scope.
• Editorial board members whose names link nowhere, or who do not list the journal on their own institutional pages.
• Contact details limited to a web form, a free email address or a messaging number.
• Archives that begin abruptly in a recent year, or older issues that are just PDFs copied from elsewhere.
• Spelling and grammar mistakes in the journal’s own policies, and generic text that could apply to any field.

Our post on 12 warning signs of a predatory journal covers more of these patterns.

If you think you have already submitted to a clone

Act quickly. Write to the site and withdraw your manuscript in writing, keeping a copy of the email. Do not pay any further fees. If you have paid, collect your receipts and contact your bank or payment provider, since some transactions can be disputed. Then email the real journal to let them know about the clone; they may already be collecting evidence. Report it to Retraction Watch and to your institution’s research or library office so others are warned.

If the paper has already appeared on the fake site, you may still be able to publish the work elsewhere once you have formally withdrawn it and explained the situation to the new editor. We cover this in more detail in our guide on what to do after publishing in a predatory journal.

A short routine for every submission

Before you submit anywhere, take ten minutes to do the following:

• Reach the journal through the index or publisher, never through a link in an unsolicited email.
• Match the domain, ISSN record and publisher.
• Cross-check two recent articles between the index and the website.
• Check the Hijacked Journal Checker.
• Read the fee policy on the official site and note how payment is made.

This takes far less time than recovering a paper from a clone. For a fuller method of choosing an outlet, see how to find a good journal indexed in Scopus or Web of Science.

How CollabCite fits in

CollabCite is a networking platform for finding co-authors, not a journal directory, so it cannot vouch for every journal you come across. Where it helps is in the opportunities we email to members: calls are accepted only from partner journals that charge authors nothing, and members can report suspected predatory or cloned journals for manual review. You can read more on our predatory journals page or join as a founding member.