I have recently noticed a disturbing trend in academic publishing: some predatory groups are creating clone websites of reputed Scopus-indexed journals. These fake sites are designed to mislead authors, accept papers, and publish them openly—without any proper peer review or legitimate editorial process.
What makes this situation worse is that Scopus has now removed journal website URLs from their Source Details pages, making it difficult for researchers to confirm whether they are dealing with the real journal or a cloned version.
This raises some urgent concerns:
- How can we now verify if a Scopus-indexed journal's website is real or fake?
- Is there any reliable way to cross-check the authentic journal website in the absence of a direct link from Scopus?
This issue is particularly dangerous for early-career researchers and those from less-connected regions who may fall prey to these cloned platforms.
Has anyone else faced this problem or found a good way to verify journal websites?
Looking forward to your suggestions and experiences.
Dear Gyanendra Rawat
Indeed, the disturbing rise of hijacked journals is a big problem. The best way to avoid these journals is to check the following great source: https://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-hijacked-journal-checker/ (click on "Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker").
Your observation that Scopus stopped displaying the homepage of the journal titles is correct (happened 1-2 years ago). See https://retractionwatch.com/2023/12/28/elseviers-scopus-deletes-journal-links-following-revelations-of-hijacked-indexed-journals/ for the reasons why. Fortunately, SCImago still show them https://www.scimagojr.com
Furthermore (for those journal titles not (yet) included in the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal database):
-For those journals included in Clarivate’s indices the homepage is indicated (you must register one time for this type of info) https://mjl.clarivate.com/home
-Check contact info (most of the times the hijacked version is vague about this)
-Check number of published papers and compare this with the Scopus content coverage number(s)
-Most of the times completely unrelated papers are published
-Read the comments at the websites of the journals in SCImago (quite often there are first indications that something is wrong with a particular journal)
By the way, the borderline between a hijacked journal and a pod journal is thin, see for example
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_the_Journal-Educational_Administration_Theory_Practice_a_good_journal_or_predatory_journal
Unfortunately, it takes some investment of time and energy to choose a proper journal in the current landscape of scientific publishing. If possible, always consult your supervisor and library (and check here on RG of course).
Best regards.
PS. See also https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_Identify_Predatory_or_Cloned_Journal
If you are worried about whether you are at the web site for the actual journal or for a hi-jacked on, it should be clear from the URL. However if you want to be safe, go directly to the publishers main page and they should list all their journals and you can go to the journal from there.
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