The Spanish journal Afinidad has been hijacked. Someone has set up a fake website for the journal and is soliciting submissions and payments from the authors in accordance with the gold open-access model.
The journal deals with the topic of chemical affinity and is published by La Asociación de Químicos e Ingenieros del Institut Químic de Sarri (Catalan: L’Associació de Químics i Enginyers de l’Institut Químic de Sarrià).
I realize that journal hijacking is less of a problem for Western scholars than it is for others. This is because the hijacked journals are more heavily promoted in Asia, usually through intense spam email campaigns. In this case, the authentic journal has an impact factor, and this is the selling point for the hijackers.
I have also learned that if English is not your native language, it’s harder to judge a publisher’s authenticity. The same is true of a native English speaker judging a website in another language.
I often hear the term fishy used to describe questionable publishers’ websites.
I now have a page on my website that lists hijacked journals; the page is here: http://scholarlyoa.com/other-pages/hijacked-journals/
Hat tip: Amin Daneshmand Malayeri