Journal of Advanced Zoology ISSN: 0253-7214 is this journal hijacked?
https://jazindia.com/index.php/jaz
Dear Khritish Swargiary
Good question. The journal “Journal of Advanced Zoology” used to be a legit and genuine journal. They used to be properly indexed and their papers were professionally edited etc., see for example:Article Coccinellid and syrphid predators of rhopal osiphum spp. (he...
Unfortunately, nowadays (started I think somewhere in 2021) there are indeed numerous ‘issues’:-Their claim to be indexed in ESCI is false, you can check here https://mjl.clarivate.com/home
-They claim indexing in Scopus https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/22525 this is/was true until end of 2022
-According to the latest Scopus source list (see enclosed file) they are discontinued (due to what they call “Publication Concerns”)
-The reason for discontinuation is clear, when you look at the (fake?/hijacked?/new?) website you see that they published way more papers than the average number of papers which you see when clicking on “Scopus content coverage” https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/22525
-Furthermore, too many volumes/issues are now filled with papers that have no relevance whatsoever when looking at the scope of the journal, for see example https://jazindia.com/index.php/jaz/article/view/3578
-Etc. Etc. Etc.
I think what happened is that the journal is either hijacked or (more likely) has been sold to a new owner:
-Indeed, according to https://www.scilit.net/sources/122738 the new owner is “Auricle Technoly, Pvt., Ltd.”
-This is a ‘publisher’ with a bad reputation and ‘owner’ of journal titles with ‘issues’, see for example my replies at various points here on RG: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_solve_Problem_with_publisher
https://www.researchgate.net/post/All-the-papers-or-articles-published-in-Scopus-Indexed-journals-will-be-in-Scopus-Database-or-not/1
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_know_any_Editor_name_or_mail_contact_for_the_Mathematical_Statistician_and_Engineering_Association_J
It shows all characteristics of hijacking (exploiting Scopus indexing for as long as possible, publishing basically everything and with a suspicious increase in the number of published papers, claiming to be transfer the journal toward open access with substantial fees etc.). In this case I think the new ownership of the journal is responsible for the poor operation that has nothing to do with scientific publishing that respect the proper scientific standards. Definitely a journal to avoid.
Best regards.