Dear Iti Chauhan ,

Indeed, we cannot warn enough about the existence of imposters trying to mislead researchers. Your example is not so much an example of a predatory journal, but a typical example of a journal hijacked by a bunch of basically criminals.

According to a well-established source of already identified hijacked (also called cloned) journal titles:

https://ugccare.unipune.ac.in/Apps1/User/Web/CloneJournalsGroupIINew

the only original and legit website is https://artifexkiado.hu/#online-kepzesek “Metszet” is a highly specialized (magazine like) journal about architecture for and by Hungarians, see enclosed file for an example (https://artifexkiado.hu/termek-cikk/metszet-20234 ).

If one is not aware of the existence of sites where already identified hijacked journal titles can be found (the best and regularly updated source is https://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-hijacked-journal-checker/) then numerous red flags can be identified:

-Indeed, as you already indicated the names in the editorial board are questionable, the name James Boulton is most likely fake. The late James T. Boulton was a famous and distinguished scientist but nowadays this name is misused not only by the here discussed “Metszet” journal but also by:

https://ijaema.com/index.php/editorial-board/

https://www.ijhssnet.com/index.php/editorial-board

https://discourseanalysis.net/de/node/1772

https://jrsdjournal.wixsite.com/jsss

The name Behnam Abasht, University of Delaware seems real but I very much doubt whether he is aware of his mentioning in this editorial board (his field of expertise has no relation whatsoever with architecture).

-No contact info, no physical address which is suspect

-ISSN number indicates a Hungarian origin while the fake website has not a single reference to this

-Scopus link https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21100296228 indicates if one click on the homepage https://tervlap.hu a link that has nothing to do with the fake website

-The indexing info if you scroll to the bottom of the page here https://metszetjournal.com/about/ mentions SCIE, SSCI, AHCI and ECIE. This is sheer nonsense since a journal cannot be indexed in ESCI and SCIE at the same time. The same is true for SSCI and SCIE, it is either SSCI or SCIE.

-If you Google the title then you rapidly stumble on the ORES site. Throughout the years I found that titles mentioned here are titles with ‘issues’ (hijacked, no longer indexed in Scopus etc.)

So, it remains amazing how these people try to mislead researchers so bluntly. Awareness is one of the best ways to battle against this sad phenomenon.

Best regards.

Thank You Rob Keller I am the editor-in-chief of the real Metszet Journal (the ISSN holder), we have actual authors, who payed for this fake hijack site. I don't know how I could erase this fake site. This is said to be on a dutch server.

Actually, we don't ask fees for publication...

Pal Csanady PhD

Dear Iti Chauhan All you can do is warn people, for example as you did here on RG. What you can do is:

-You might add the original website in your question above.

-Change the title of your question in something like "reporting a hijacked version of a legit journal"

Best regards.