In any case you should inform the editor(s) of the original journal. Depending on who holds the copyright (you or the journal/publisher), the copyright owner can try to undertake action against that other journal. However, such illegal copying is usually made by predatory journals and they will not react. The success of legal actions depends on the country where the journal is published. See also https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_should_i_do_A_journal_have_published_my_paper_however_I_never_submitted_the_manuscript_to_that_journal, particularly the reply by Rob Keller .

Dear Dr. Dick, thank you for your answer, which seems to me very accurate. I am the editor of the first Journal that published the article. The author has already written to the Editor of the Journal that published the English translated copy of the original article without receiving a response. It is incredible that scientists with a track record of publications (now not very credible to me) lend themselves to this type of action as Editors. Likewise, the Editorial Committee of the second journal is made up of researchers from many countries (although now I don't know if they have given their consent to be included in said Committee).

Dear Cristóbal José Lárez Velásquez ,

Indeed, a somewhat disturbing matter. It sounds to me as a fraudulent act of a publisher/journal that desperately needs content. The thing is that the publisher behind the journal “Applied Chemical Engineering” is called “EnPress Publisher, LLC” (https://enpress-publisher.com ), a publisher mentioned in the Beall’s list of potential predatory publishers (https://beallslist.net ). As indicated by Wolfgang R. Dick this is most likely an act of a predatory journal/publisher.

However, this publisher has three journals indexed in Scopus (including the journal “Applied Chemical Engineering”):

-Applied Chemical Engineering (just added this year) https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101089569

-Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101052847

-Trends in Immunotherapy https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101059489

According to the ‘Scopus content coverage’ of the 2nd and 3rd journal they have indeed a hard time to publish enough content (less than 20 papers a year). They start to introduce an APC for all these journals once they received a Scopus indexing (in other words they applied for Scopus indexing with the message that they don’t charge anything…).

The positive thing might be that you can inform Scopus about this (and inform the editorial team of ACE) and assume that if this matter is not resolved they will lose their Scopus indexing.

As far as I can see they are at a crossroad: either we are going in the right direction, or we are going in the wrong direction. The way they will handle this matter will tell a lot.

Best regards.

PS. Just quickly checked another paper published by ACE and they have done it at least one more time:

https://revistas.utadeo.edu.co/index.php/mutis/article/view/1707/1739 and https://systems.enpress-publisher.com/index.php/ACE/article/view/1646

I really appreciate your valuable opinion because I know of all the work to find the material that supports it. The author of the article contacted the Editor of App. Chem. Eng., without receiving a response. I also wrote to him, as editor of the journal Avances en Química, with a copy to several of the members of the Editorial Committee and I am waiting for his responses before filing the complaint in Scopus. Again my thanks

Dear Editor Dr. Cristóbal Lárez Veásquez. Thank you for your support regarding in the overwhelming, controversial and unethical situation concerning to journal “Applied Chemical Engineering” (EnPress Publisher), which published “without my authorization” an “English translation” of an article that I had previously published in “Spanish” through of the journal “Avances en Química”. The behavior of the Editorial Committee of Applied Chemical Engineering is unethical, and should not be repeated in the future, and Scopus should take this into account before accrediting a journal with this type of practice.

Dear Ricardo, thank you for your replay. The author of an article published in Journal "Mutis" (in Spanish) confirmed to me that he suffered the same type of "procedure" by this "Journal". Also, one of the members of the Editorial Committee of Journal ACE has responded to me indicating that he agrees that the journal must have the approval of the authors but that the copyright issue must be resolved by the Editors of the journals. I have indicated that these rights cannot be declined for Avances en Química.

Case update: the editor of Applied Chemical Engineering (ACE) has responded by agreeing to exclude from this "Journal" the unauthorized translation of the article by Dr. Ricardo R. Contreras published in Avances en Química. However, there are still some articles in this Journal that seem to have been translated and published in the same vein as ours, that is, without the knowledge or consent of the3ir authors (at least the corresponding author of one of these articles confirmed it to me).

In its response, the editor reports that ACE sent an email requesting authorization to Dr. Contreras; however, said email (see attached copy) is practically an imposition of the publication by indicating that if the author does not respond in 5 days the material will be published anyway. It is not important whether the author agrees with the translation or to mention the original source of the translated material. The important thing is that ACE manages to publish a greater number of articles that allows it to access indices such as Scopus in order to charge higher APCs (currently at 1600 USD!!!) to the articles that are published later.

Dear Prof.Cristobal,this seems quite disturbing and unethical, scopus should take strict action against such a practice.

Thanks & high regards

Dear Dr. Moina. Thank you very much for your message. I don't know if the other Journal´s editors whose articles were translated and published in this predatory Journal took action, at least in our case we managed to get the stolen article removed. Unfortunately there are not many instances where to go for this type of case. Regards