International Journal of Junk.
I am trying to understand what’s going on with the International Journal of Scientific Research (IJScR). It claims to be published by the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi.
The journal’s ISSN number is 1832-1011. Searching this number in WorldCat, one retrieves a bibliographic record for a journal with the similar title International Journal of Science & Research.
Here is a screenshot of the record:
What’s the connection, exactly?
As you see, the ISSN matches, but little else does. Has the journal’s title been changed and its ownership transferred from the International Research Association in Australia to the United Arab Emirates University? Has it been hijacked? The journal’s website doesn’t answer these questions.
Seeking clarification, I sent an email to Ghalia Alahbabi, the University’s Head of Media Communication but received no reply. Then I emailed the Dean of the University’s library, Prof. Hassan Al Naboodah, but he merely referred my inquiry to a subordinate who gave me a response that indicated he didn’t understand my question.
The current issue of the journal contains the article “Mystical Discussion in poetry of contemporary poets of Azerbaijan” By Aliakbar Radpoor and Almaz Aligizi, which doesn’t seem to be “scientific research” to me. Also, it’s easy to find plagiarism in the articles, and it’s clear that no copyediting has been done in most of them.
Thomson Reuters “Master” list.
Further complicating this, the journal is included in the Thomson Reuters Master List, a listing that seems to confirm that the United Arab Emirates University is the publisher. But this list, despite being used by many as an indicator of journal quality, has been polluted with data from hijacked journals recently. I find the list unreliable.
In the end, it doesn’t matter who the publisher of the International Journal of Scientific Research is. It’s a horrible journal, and serious scholars should not submit their work to it.
