A Trojan horse?

[Note: This is a guest blog post by Dr. Tansu Küçüköncü].

Thales Academic Publisher publishes 23 open-access journals and organizes scholarly conferences. It also publishes academic books. It is included on the list of questionable publishers.

Strangely, two of its journals (the International Journal of Advanced and Multidisciplinary Social Science (JAMSS) and the International Journal of Advanced and Multidisciplinary Engineering Science (JAMES)) are also found on the website of another publisher, Scientific & Academic Publishing (SAPUB), which is also included on the list of questionable publishers.

Also, seven of the publisher’s journals (JNSR, JEDS, JBAH, JIEA, RJFA, RHSS, JSTR) are included on another publishing platform, that of the International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE), a publisher is also on the list. It is emphasized that six of the journals in IISTE (all except JSTR) have been published for at least five years.

It is said that all seven journals in IISTE are published jointly by both Thales Academic Publisher and IISTE. However, when you access the journals through the IISTE website, there is no indication that the journals also appear on the Thales Academic Publishing website.

The editor-in-chief of the two SAPUB / Thales journals is the same, Fikret Mazi. Fikret Mazi is also the editor-in-chief of three of the IISTE journals.

One of the journals, the International Journal of Thales Solar Energy Reviews (JTSER), which promises fast publication in 20 days, is supported by TÜBİTAK (the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). Its editor-in-chief is Furkan Dincer.

Thales Publisher also has thirteen additional journals which also promise fast publication in 20 days.

It is interesting that Thales Academic Publisher (Tales Akademik Yayincilik) has no physical address, nor does it list a phone number. Probably it has no official registration anywhere. The only way to contact Thales Publisher is through an anonymous e-mail, thales.editors@gmail.com.

Although its website (http://www.thalespublisher.com) has no information about who its owner is, it’s possible the owner is Omer Faruk Farsakoglu.

The mysterious / fictitious / anonymous / unofficial Thales Academic Publisher, which is contactable only via an anonymous email, is sponsoring several conferences with Kilis 7 Aralık University in Turkey in 2016 at several locations.

The chair of these conferences is Ömer Faruk Farsakoğlu. The conference at Kilis 7 Aralik University — to be held 19-20 March 2016 (International Conference on Natural Science and Engineering (ICNASE ’16)) — is interesting because it has dozens of Turkish university directors (vice rectors, deans) as scientific committee members.

Retraction notice for plagiarism; the author is now a conference organizer in Turkey.

In 2005, Ömer Faruk Farsakoğlu had a paper retracted because of plagiarism. Part of the retraction notice appears in the image above.

According to new Turkish academic regulations, publishing articles in any journal or conference proceeding are enough to be an associate professor and then full professor.

Moreover these articles bring salary promotions, up to 20 percent, to their authors.  Prizes (such as best paper awards) given by any journals and conferences are also effective for promotion to associate professor and to gain salary promotions.

Articles in journals that have published for five years or more bring more academic credit.

Being the editor of any journal or organizing any conference is also an effective way to be promoted to associate professor and to gain salary increases.

Under the old system, having one or two SCI (or the equivalent of it for other disciplines) articles was the requirement. The new system did away with this requirement.

Since 2011, the TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM index for Turkish journals (which includes some journals which were deleted from SCI) (which includes 2 year-old journals) (inclusion criteria of which is suspicious) (deletion is almost impossible) is accepted as equivalent to SCI (and its equivalents for other disciplines).

(ULAKBİM: Ulusal Akademik Ağ ve Bilgi Merkezi = National Academic Network and Information Center)

TÜBİTAK is problematic. There are some journals which are directly published by TÜBİTAK. One of the basic and major problems is that it refuses to retract even some 100% plagiarized articles, if the article is older than 5 years. Its decisions, especially details (how they decided, who decided), about ethical violations are secret. It refuses to share data used in articles.

The new system can be summarized as: Everything is acceptable.

In Turkey, associate professor is a title awarded by Turkey’s Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

YÖK (or HEC) has no white or black list for journals and publishers. In the new system, publishing in Turkish journals and being cited six times in Turkish journals (there is way to determine these citations) are the new requirements.

In the new system, conferences are promoted. YÖK has no white or black list for conferences and conference organizers.

New salary promotions, up to 20%, are in parallel to this new system.

Turkish academy is very problematic. The new system and the new salary promotions will create a crisis situation that will be unfixable.

The immediate consequences will be:

1. An increase in the number of gold (author-pays) publishers specializing in quick, easy, and cheap scholarly publishing.

2. New Turkish journals and publishers and conference organizers and “international” conferences by Turkish academics and Turkish citation rings.

Thales was an ancient Greek philosopher from Miletus on the Aegean coast of Anatolia.

Conferences, journals, spam.

A continuing explosion in the number of low-quality and predatory scholarly conferences in Southeast Asia is confusing and annoying researchers in the region. One example is the so-called International Academy of Computer Technology (IACT) — which is not really an academy at all — whose headquarters address shows up as a dwelling in a U.S. state.

The International Academy of Computer Technology (IACT) claims on its website that it’s a “nonprofit research and development organization,” a claim I doubt. It operates several scholarly conferences each month and publishes several open-access journals.

Here’s the headquarters address the “Academy” gives:

3308 N Mayfield Ave,
San Bernardino, CA 92405

Paying taxes on earned income in the U.S. and California?

This is the house at that address, a small structure with a steeply-pitched roof and a tree-lined yard. Despite its claimed U.S. base, only a tiny proportion of its journals’ editorial board members are based in the U.S.

The company lures researchers into presenting at its conferences (and paying the registration fees) by tempting them with offers to publish their conference papers in indexed journals, journals they themselves publish.

The come-on, in a strange font, as seen on their conference website.

They generally organize two-four conferences each month, with each month’s conferences taking place at the same hotel at the same time. For example, their April, 2016 conferences will be held in Bali, Indonesia. They are:

• 2016 4th International Conference on Nano and Materials Engineering
• 2016 2nd International Conference on Sensors and Mechanical Automation
• 2016 4th International Conference on Electronics Engineering and Technology

Some believe that if a conference is the event’s 2nd or higher that it’s automatically legitimate — not true. I’ve gotten reports from several researchers in Indonesia that many there are being spammed to attend these conferences.

Their publishing arm, also run from a house in San Bernardino.

The people in the house on Mayfield Avenue in San Bernardino publish a lot of journals. Some — but not all — of the journals they publish are included on website for International Academy Publishing.

I strongly recommend that researchers everywhere avoid this company’s conferences and open-access journals. I think the academic indexes that cover these journals have been fooled.

Appendix: List of International Academy Publishing journals as of 2016-03-12 (list may be incomplete):

1. International Journal of Applied Physics and Mathematics
2. International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics
3. International Journal of Computer and Communication Engineering
4. International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering
5. International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning
6. International Journal of Knowledge Engineering
7. International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics
8. International Journal of Materials Science and Engineering
9. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity
10. Journal of Computers
11. Journal of Software
12. Lecture Notes on Information Theory
13. Lecture Notes on Software Engineering

Predatory-ology

There’s a new open-access publisher in town, and its name is Ology Science. I fear that the publisher may have a connection with the notorious publisher called OMICS International.

Ology Science launched with ten broad, bio-medical sciences journals. Most of the titles are similar to many journals already being published by other publishers, but one title that stood out to me was this one:

Journal of Oral Surgica Acta

This is such a strange title for a journal — it seems overly-contrived. I can just imagine someone asking, “Say, have you read my latest article in the Journal of Oral Surgica Acta?”

Response: “No.”

The evidence that points to a possible connection to OMICS International is the language and style of their spam email. The journals are currently recruiting editorial board members (no work required). Here’s a spam editorial board solicitation from them that was forwarded to me:

Journal of Food Science and Nutraceuticals

Dear Dr. [Retracted],

Greetings for the day!!!!

Journal of Food Science and Nutraceuticals publishes quality articles with the support from scientists like you. We are aware of your reputation for quality research and trust worthiness in the field of “Food Science” and that is why you have been chosen as an Editorial Board Member for our Journal.

We assure you International quality and standards of our articles published in our journal, using state-of-the-art prominent reviewers and editorial board. We also assure you of our best cooperation always.

If you are interested, we request you to send a recent passport size photo (JPEG format), CV, Biography (150 words) and Research Interests for our records.

We look forward to a close and long lasting scientific relationship for the benefit of scientific community.

With kind regards,
Candy Alice
Editorial Assistant
Managing Editor

The spam email is pandering, smarmy, and full of errors. The name at the end is fictitious, like everything else about this publisher and OMICS as well.

Ology Science gives this as their headquarters address:

3620,
Dripping Springs Dr.,
Plano, TX
USA

3620 Dripping Springs Drive in Plano, Texas: You can’t hide!

That address corresponds to — you guessed it — a dwelling.

The domain name data for the website is blinded, and my best guess is that the publisher is really based in Hyderabad, India, home to many exploitative open-access publishers.

The two journals missing from Ology Science’s fleet are two whose fields best reflect the publisher’s experience: Path-ology and Crimin-ology.

UPDATE: There is another new publisher that is also spamming using the language and style of OMICS’ spam emails.  Its name is Excelytics Publishers, and it lunched with four medical journals and one materials science journal. I would recommend deleting or ignoring any spam you receive from this new publisher.

Hat tip: Amanda Ferguson

Appendix:

List of Ology Science journals as of 2016-04-01:

1. Journal of Asthma and Allergy Research
2. Journal of Diagnostic and Cardiology Research
3. Journal of Experimental Pain Management
4. Journal of Food Science and Nutraceuticals
5. Journal of Neurology and Neuroinformatics
6. Journal of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
7. Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging
8. Journal of Oral Surgica Acta
9. Journal of Pediatrics and Healthcare Nursing
10. Journal of Personalized NanoMedicine

List of Excelytics Publishers journals as of 2016-04-02:

1. Insights in Cancer Research
2. Cellular Immunology & Immunotherapeutics
3. Trends in HIV/AIDS
4. Insights in Medical Science
5. Trends in Nanotechnology & Material Science

A mess indeed.

Be on the lookout for spam from a man using the fake persona of “Dr. Karl Heinz” and soliciting manuscripts for two open-access journals of abysmal quality. The journals use the initialisms JMESS and JMEST and claim they’re based in Germany, buy I suspect they are really based in eastern Turkey.

The two journals, with overlapping scopes, are:

• Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)
  
• Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS)

Here’s part of a spam email that “Professor Heinz” has blasted out to numerous researchers:

Blah, blah, blah.

On the JMEST website, there is a call for papers that highlights the five-day time between submission and publication in the open-access journal:

Strong evidence of a weak journal.

I’ve been receiving emails from “Dr. Heinz” asking me to remove the two journals from my list, something I have no plans to do. Here’s a sample:

Dear Jeffry,

I hope you are fine, I am Dr. Heinz from Germany, we have journals jmest and jmess in your list. But we could not understand why you added our journals to your list. We are working with under formal process. I mean our ISSN numbers are valid, and we have more than 400 reviewers and 60 editors to serve academicians.

Here is the some of explanation our journal, we kindly request remove our journal names from your list.

We look forward to hear from you.

Note that having a valid ISSN is not a measure of quality, and quality is something that both of these journals are saliently lacking.

In another email “Dr. Heinz” indicated this as the publisher’s German headquarters address: Gemeinde Neukölln, 10965 Berlin.

The domain name registration points to a different name, however. Here’s some of the domain name data for JMESS (which matches that of JMEST):

 Registrant ID: ovh56168bfbaemw
 Registrant Name: Naci Kalkan
 Registrant Organization:
 Registrant Street: jmess.org, office #8621028
 Registrant Street: c/o OwO, BP80157
 Registrant City: Roubaix Cedex 1
 Registrant State/Province:
 Registrant Postal Code: 59053
 Registrant Country: FR
 Registrant Phone: +33.899498765

A source tells me that “Dr. Karl Heinz” is really Naci Kalkan, the person to whom the journals’ websites are registered.

Not Teutonic at all.

Kalkan is a “research assistance” at Bitlis Eren University in eastern Turkey. He’s published (or self-published) at least one article in JMEST, too.

The world of scholarly open-access publishing is full of such deceit, and when it comes to open access, you can’t be sure of anything anymore. Proceed with extreme caution.

KnowledgeCuddle …. Really?

This past week I added a publisher called KnowledgeCuddle Publication to my list. The publisher’s name is silly and unprofessional, more evidence of scholarly open-access publishing’s decline into absurdity.

At the same time, two U.S. universities implemented strong open-access policies, policies their faculties will be pressured to follow and submit to.

The contrast is stark: the appearance of a completely ridiculous open-access publisher, and the appearance of what are essentially open-access mandates at two U.S. universities. Why are universities promoting and essentially mandating a publishing model that is increasingly becoming a self-parody?

A product of the open-access movement.

KnowledgeCuddle Publication uses the open-source Open Journal Systems software, a favorite of predatory publishers.

Based in Gujarat, India, KnowledgeCuddle currently publishes two open-access journals:

• International Journal of Research in Advance [sic] Engineering
• International Journal of Computer Engineering and Sciences

The two journals cover academic disciplines already saturated with open-access journals — both are completely unneeded.

The two universities that announced their new open-access policies are the University of Arizona and Florida State University. Now faculty at the two universities can publish in either of the two KnowledgeCuddle journals and be in compliance of their university’s open-access policy, provided they also submit a post-print of their work to their library’s repository.

The policies only specify open-access and don’t address journal quality, a big problem with OA journals.

Over the past couple weeks, some library email lists I monitor have been inundated with congratulatory messages directed at the two universities. I think this is an example of what anthropologist Michael F. Brown calls open-access triumphalism.

I oppose open-access mandates as a violation of academic freedom. Fortunately, both universities’ policies provide easy escape clauses from the Orwellian policies.

Still, I think the appearance of publishers such as KnowledgeCuddle, together with the tacit approval of such publishers by academic librarians and others is cause for worry.

—

Where KnowledgeCuddle claims its journals are indexed. http://www.knowledgecuddle.com/index.php/IJCES

A cheap knockoff of the real thing.

Here I’d like to sound a warning about two low-quality scholarly open-access publishers. I wrote previously about Pyrex Journals and have an update on them. I’ll also write about a new publisher with a dumb name: Scientia Ricerca.

I originally wrote a blog post about Pyrex Journals in November, 2014. At that time, I reported that it had just launched with ten journals. Now it has 33.

Pyrex is based in Nigeria, a place where strange and salient business names are common.

One of the reasons I wanted to highlight this publisher again is because it has been spamming a lot recently. The spam emails highlight their fast (fake) peer review process, stating,

Our Peer-Review Evaluation Process normally takes one to two weeks to complete depending on the number of rounds the Peer-Review Evaluation Process needs to take before an article is published. For the 1st-round Peer-Review Evaluation Process, it will take one week to complete.

This is one of the more “successful” Nigerian open-access publishers. Most that are launched there flounder and disappear.

Weird in every way.

Scientia Ricerca is a new open-access publisher. It launched with 14 biomedical sciences journals.

I cannot figure out where it’s based. Its “Reach us” page gives a Southern California address, but I think the address is fake. The domain name data is blinded — except for the registrant information — which it lists as Gagan Chaitanya.

This publisher stands out for its salient use of boastful and poorly-edited language. Here’s an example:

According to our belief, there is no best price for knowledge expect the will to learn. Scientia Ricerca, is counted amongst the leading Online Publishing Groups that strive to spread scientific ideas and research information to all.

The only thing this publisher leads in is low quality. It also uses the wrong term to describe itself. Its tagline is “An Open access Directory.”

Moreover, on its “Editor Guidelines” page, the publisher gives this advice to its peer reviewers:

If the article is rejected due to less quality, please explain the reason for its refuse.

Refuse indeed. This advice is given in vain, for I doubt the publisher will ever reject a submitted manuscript.

I strongly recommend that researchers reject all invitations of any kind they receive from these two open-access publishers.

Appendix: Lists of journals from each publisher.

Pyrex Journals

1. Pyrex Journal of Biodiversity And Conservation (PJBC)
2. Pyrex Journal of Biomedical Research (PJBR)
3. Pyrex Journal of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology (PJBMB)
4. Pyrex Journal of Business and Finance Management Research (PJBFMR)
5. Pyrex Journal of Clinical Pathology and Clinical Reviews (PJCPCR)
6. Pyrex Journal of Computer And Information Systems (PJCIS)
7. Pyrex Journal of Dentistry and Oral Hygiene (PJDOH)
8. Pyrex Journal of Ecology and The Natural Environment (PJENE)
9. Pyrex Journal of Economics And International Finance (PJEIF)
10. Pyrex Journal of Educational Research and Reviews (PJERR)
11. Pyrex Journal of Engineering and Technology (PJET)
12. Pyrex Journal of English and Literature (PJEL)
13. Pyrex Journal of Food Science and Technology (PJFST)
14. Pyrex Journal of Geography and Regional Planning (PJGRP)
15. Pyrex Journal of Geology and Mining Research (PJGMR)
16. Pyrex Journal of History and Culture (PJHC)
17. Pyrex Journal of Law and Conflict Resolution (PJLCR)
18. Pyrex Journal of Library and Information Science (PJLIS)
19. Pyrex Journal of Medical Laboratory And Diagnosis (PJMLD)
20. Pyrex Journal of Medicinal Plant Research (PJMPR)
21. Pyrex Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences (PJMMS)
22. Pyrex Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology Research (PJMBR)
23. Pyrex Journal of Nursing and Midwifery (PJNM)
24. Pyrex Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism (PJNAM)
25. Pyrex Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology (PJPP)
26. Pyrex Journal of Physical Sciences (PJPS)
27. Pyrex Journal of Plant and Agricultural Research (PJPAR)
28. Pyrex Journal of Political Science and International Relations (PJPSIR)
29. Pyrex Journal of Psychology and Counselling (PJPC)
30. Pyrex Journal of Pure And Applied Chemistry (PJPAC)
31. Pyrex Journal of Research in Environmental Studies (PJRES)
32. Pyrex Journal of Taxation and Accounting Management (PJTAM)
33. Pyrex Journal of Vetrinary [sic] Medicine and Animal Science (PJVMAS)

Scientia Ricerca

1. Anaesthesia Critical Care and Pain Management
2. Chronicles of Pharamacexutical [sic] Science
3. Clinical Biotechnology and Microbiology
4. Current Opinions in Neurological Science
5. Gynaecology and Perinatology
6. Holistic Approaches in Oncotherapy
7. Innovative Techniques in Agriculture
8. Multidisciplinary Advances in Veterinary Science
9. Nutrition and Food Toxicology
10. Opthalmology [sic] and Vision Science
11. Oral Health and Dentistry
12. Ortopedia and Trauma
13. Pulmonary Research and Respiratory Care
14. Therapeutic Advances in Cardiology

New scholarly open-access publishers continue to appear at a fast pace. Here are three that launched recently — one with a generic name, one with a stolen name, and one with a suspicious name.

Here are the three publishers I will describe in this blog post:

1. Open Access Publisher
2. Open Journal Systems
3. MedWin Publishers

OA what?

1. Open Access Publisher

The first thing you notice about this publisher is that its name doesn’t match its initials. Why isn’t it OAP? I think it’s a typo — a typo in their own name — and this is a bad sign.

Also. The name itself is bland. Can you imagine trying to find this publisher’s website through a Google search?

This publisher’s “contact us” page doesn’t list any physical location, but I think it’s based in Hong Kong. They claim they’re not charging author fees at this time, and they are trying to bait article submissions with the promise of a research fund for authors:

There is an OAE scientific financial support (about $10 000 000) for those authors who need to support their research.

To make itself look legitimate, this publisher created its own medical association, the Asia-Pacific Association of Medical Research. They publish eight medical journals. My advice: Don’t send any papers to this publisher.

No creativity whatsoever.

2. Open Journal Systems

This crazy publisher named itself after the open-source software it uses to host its journals. That’s right, Open Journals Systems is the name of the open-source journal management software made available by the Public Knowledge Project at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

If the format looks familiar, that’s because the software is free, and it’s used by dozens if not hundreds of open-access publishers, especially predatory ones. Few publishers change the settings and just use the defaults, as this one does.

I got one of their spam emails:

This is to inform you that we hereby call for the submission of academic/research papers for publication. Please visit the journal’s homepages for more information. All the journals is part of the Open Journal Systems/ Public Knowledge Project.

They publish four unneeded, broad-scope medical journals and one unneeded CAM journal. They claim to be based in “Manchester, United Kingdom.” Their website is minimalist, lacking much information conventionally provided by publishers. It’s also amateurish and unworthy of its name. My advice: Don’t even let your worst enemies publish here.

This is the most dangerous of the three.

3. MedWin Publishers

This brand-new publisher launched recently with 33 journals in the biomedical sciences, journals covering fields already saturated with existing periodicals. There’s no need for any of these.

The publisher claims it’s based in Troy, Michigan. Researchers who submit their work here will see it published rather quickly:

Authors are usually informed within 4-7 days about the acceptance or rejection of their article and if accepted it gets published in 2 days of acceptance.

What efficiency. I am not sure who’s behind this fleet launch of new journals. It smells like OMICS International, a company that already publishes hundreds of low-quality OA journals under many imprints. I think OMICS is trying to saturate the market to starve out the competition. My advice: It’s likely you’ll receive a spam email from this publisher. When it arrives, delete it.

Appendix: List of journals from each publisher:

A. Open Access Publisher

1. Plastic and Aesthetic Research
2. Neuroimmunology and Neuroinflammation
3. Journal of Cancer Metastasis and Treatment
4. Hepatoma Research
5. Artery Plus
6. Journal of Unexplored Cancer Data
7. Translational Genetics and Genomics
8. Stomatological Disease and Science

B. Open Journal Systems

1. Annals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
2. Journal of Pharmacology and Clinical Sciences
3. Journal of Microbiology and Antimicrobial Agents
4. Annals of Medical and Biomedical Sciences
5. Annals of British Medical Sciences

C. MedWin Publishers

1. Advances in Clinical Toxicology
2. Advances in Pharmacology and Clinical Trials
3. Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine Journal
4. Diabetis International
5. Ecology and Toxicology Open Access
6. Endocrinology Open Access
7. Food Science and Nutrition Technology
8. Gastroenterology & Hepatology International Journal
9. International Journal of Biochemistry an Physiology
10. International Journal of Cell Science
11. International Journal of Forensic Sciences
12. International Journal of Oceanography and Aquaculture
13. International Journal of Veterinary Science and Technology
14. Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology Open Access
15. Neurology and Nephrology Open Access
16. Open Access Journal of Dental Sciences
17. Open Access Journal Cardiology
18. Open Access Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
19. Open Access Journal of Agricultural Research
20. Open Access Journal of Gynecology
21. Open Access Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
22. Open Access Journal of Oncology
23. Open Access Journal of Opthalmology
24. Open Access Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
25. Open Access Journal of Pulmonary & Respiratory Sciences
26. Open Access Journal of Urology and Nephrology
27. Orthopaedics and Rheumatology Open Access
28. Otolaryngology Open Access Journal
29. Pediatrics and Neonatal Biology Open Access
30. Psychology and Research International Journal
31. Public Health Open Access
32. Vaccines and Vaccination Open Access
33. Virology and Immunlogy Journal

Overstated.

The Thomson Reuters Master Journal List is not a journal whitelist and should not be used as one. Numerous low-quality and predatory journals are announcing their inclusion in this list as a mark or guarantee of quality, fooling many.

The purpose of the list is to serve as a comprehensive list of journals included in at least one of 24 different journal indexes produced by Thomson Reuters. If a journal is included in one or more of these indexes, it appears in the master list.

This is a problem because the barrier for entry into some of the Thomson Reuters indexes is very low. Take the index called Zoological Record, for example. It includes over 4700 journals, including many predatory journals that are unworthy of being included in any quality scholarly index.

Don’t be fooled by this list.

The journal shown in the top image above, Investigaciones Europeas de Dirección y Economía de la Empresa (IEDEE) is an example. It provides misleading information about the TR Master List.

On its home page, the journal declares,

IEDEE newly added [sic] to THOMSON REUTERS MASTER JOURNAL LIST

The Master Journal List includes all journal titles covered in Web of Science (WoS). This means that articles published in the journal will be searchable, discoverable and citable in Web of Science.

This is somewhat misleading. It’s included in one of Thomson Reuters easiest databases to get into, its Emerging Sources Citation Index.

Here’s a screenshot of the journal’s entry on the TR Master List:

The whole truth.

As you see, according to the entry, it’s only included in Emerging Sources Citation index, a list I’ve documented as containing junk journals.

I encourage all ministries of education, all universities and colleges, all academic departments, and all funding agencies to stop using the Thomson Reuters Master List as a measure of quality.

The list is filled with dozens or hundreds of low-quality and predatory journals. Using this list as a quality indicator actually promotes the lower quality, open-access journals included in it, for it serves as advertising for them, drawing in authors seeking easy and fast acceptance of their article submissions.

A screenshot of part of the hijacked journal’s website.

A scholarly journal sponsored by a United Nations organization and published in Chile has been hijacked, with the hijackers creating a counterfeit website and widely soliciting manuscript submissions. However, unlike most journal hijacking cases, in this case, the apparent perpetrator’s name and location are easily found.

The journal is CEPAL Review (Revista CEPAL), published in Santiago, Chile by ECLAC, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, a UN agency.

The hijacked journal, which bears the same title of and tries to present itself as the authentic journal, is located here: http://www.cepalreview.org/ The hijacked journal uses the free Open Journal Systems software — a favorite of journal hijackers — for its publishing platform.

Generally, the domain-name registration data for hijacked journal websites is blinded. Rather surprisingly, the domain name data for this one is freely available:

Domain Name: CEPALREVIEW.ORG
Domain ID: D188245835-LROR
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL: http://www.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Updated Date: 2016-07-09T03:45:57Z
Creation Date: 2016-05-09T12:28:42Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2017-05-09T12:28:42Z
Sponsoring Registrar: PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 303
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID: DI_42937315
Registrant Name: Mehmet Bahaeddin YORGUN
Registrant Organization: N/A
Registrant Street: Vali Mithatbey Mah. Hastahane Cad.
Registrant Street: Nedim Odabasi Tic. Mrk. A blok Kat 2 No 2
Registrant City: VAN
Registrant State/Province: MERKEZ
Registrant Postal Code: 65100
Registrant Country: TR
Registrant Phone: +90.05078722929

This registration data points to a Mr. Mehmet Bahaeddin Yorgun, from Van, a city in eastern Turkey also known as a center of international smuggling.

An image from the authentic journal’s website.

This hijacked journal is currently spamming, hoping to lure submissions from researchers needing a publication in an impact factor journal. The spam email (partial screenshot below) lists the journal’s editor as “Dr. Osvaldo Sunkle.” The correct spelling of his name  is Osvaldo Sunkel.

Hijacked journals continue to be a problem, fooling researchers in many countries. I’ve noticed an increase in their spamming in the past month. Please help me sound the warning about them so that researchers avoid their traps.

I call on Mehmet Bahaeddin Yorgun to shut down this bogus website.

Part of the hijacked journal’s spam.

Hat tip: Dr. Marco van de Weert

Appendix: A recent spam email from the hijacked journal:

CALL FOR PAPER

Journal Citation Reports®, Thomson Reuters
IF: 0.133; 2014/2015

SUBMISSIONS WELCOME FOR CEPAL REVIEW SPECIAL ISSUE (DECEMBER 2016)

CEPAL Review journal is a peer reviewed multidisciplinary international journal publishing original and high-quality articles covering a wide range of topics in engineering, science and technology. Published papers in CEPAL Review will be indexed in very important Indexing & Abstracting databases such as Social Sciences Citation Index, SCOPUS, EBSCO, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory and etc. The journal welcomes author submission of original and significant contributions. Articles submitted should not have been previously published or be currently under consideration for publication any place else and should report original unpublished research results.

* Papers can be written in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
* All articles are sent for blind peer review, with a very fast and without delay review procedure (within approximately two week after the submission).
* Authors have to read through the author guidelines [1] carefully before beginning the submission process.
* Submissions are accepted through the online submission system [2] Or via e-mail: cepalreview@gmail.com.

Learn more and read existing OnlineOpen papers in CEPAL Review [3]

TOPICS OF INTERESTS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

*Arts and Literature, Agricultural Sciences, Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Medicine and Physics, Management and Economic, Humanities, Linguistics, Philosophy, All scientific fields.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
DR. OSVALADO SUNKLE
MANAGING EDITOR

2017

by Jeffrey Beall, January 3, 2017. Each year at this time I formally announce my updated list of predatory publishers. Because the publisher list is now very large, and because I now publish four, continuously-updated lists, the annual releases do not include the actual lists but instead include statistical and explanatory data about the lists and links to them.

Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers: This year, 2017, marks the seventh annual release or announcement of this list, which is also continuously updated. The list this year includes 1155 publishers, an increase of 232 over 2016. There are now over one thousand predatory open-access publishers.

Number of predatory publishers, 2011-2017.

Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access journals: This year, 2017, marks the fifth annual release of this list, which is also continuously updated. The list this year includes 1294 journals, an increase of 412 over 2016. This is the first year that the number of standalone journals is higher than the number of publishers.

Number of predatory, standalone journals, 2013-2017.

Misleading metrics and Hijacked journals:  The Misleading metrics list includes companies that “calculate” and publish counterfeit impact factors (or some similar measure) to publishers, metrics the publishers then use in their websites and spam email to trick scholars into thinking their journals have legitimate impact factors.

The Hijacked journals list includes journals for which someone has created a counterfeit website, stealing the journal’s identity and soliciting articles submissions using the author-pays model (gold open-access).

Fake impact factor companies, 2015-2017.

Number of known hijacked journals, 2015-2017.

Here are links to current edition of each list:

• Predatory Publishers
• Predatory standalone journals
• Misleading metrics companies
• Hijacked journals

Acknowledgement: I am very grateful for all the help, support, suggestions, and advice I have received over the past year. I especially thank those who have forwarded information — such as spam emails — to me, emails providing information about new and questionable journals and publishers, and emails that share the sender’s analysis of the journal or publisher in question. □