FAKE WEBSITES SCAMS IN OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING

A Rising Threat to the Integrity of Open Access Publishers,

Writers & Institutions.

Issue at Hand

Fraudulent Websites:

Fake websites that duplicate and/or imitate official Open Access Publishing Portals.

Contain no legitimacy whatsoever with any recognized institution

Prey upon desperate authors in a “publish or perish” situation in terms of academic/professional standing.

Modus Operandi of Fraudulent Web Publishing

Scams

Similar-to-Original Names: Adopt web-addresses & names with

slight alpha-numeric alterations.

Duplicative Appearances: Fake website’s appearance is made

to look almost exactly like the original, often by making slight changes to the original source codes.

Modus Operandi of Fraudulent Web Publishing Scams

Offer of “Cheap” publication. Offer fractional prices for publication under the

tags of “Special Promotion Offer” etc. to unsuspected authors

Engaged in Inadequate Peer-review Systems Use a time period of only 4-7 days to review the

articles and then guarantee the publication even for a piece consisting entirely of gibberish.

Case Study“www.scialert.com”

Name Duplication: www.sciEalert.com

instead of

www.scialert.com

Data Duplication: All data from the original website

had been copied exactly in the phish site.

Case Study“www.scialert.com”

Alteration & Publication: Scammers published two articles in a journal

taken from a link present at the original website.

Retreat: After being promptly pointed-out, the scammers

turned out to be Iran-based scientists. Upon contact via telephone, the phishing website

was taken down immediately and unpublished.

Name Duplication

Original Fake

wwww.scialert.com wwww.sciealert.com

Data Duplication

Original Fake

Targeted Link

Original Fake

Targeted Journal

Original Fake

Targeted Year

Original Fake

Targeted Issues

Original Fake

Targeted Article1

Original Fake

Replacement of the article

Original Fake

Targeted Article 2

Original Fake

Replacement of the Article

Original Fake

Another example of cybercrime in Scientific Publishing

Identity theft of Two European Science Journals by counterfeit journal websites

Crooked websites are masquerading as Archives des Sciences( Switzerland) and Wulfenia (Austria)

Austrian Police closed down a fake website in Austria but multiple replicas popped up on servers in other countries.

Ref: http://www.nature.com/news/sham-journals-scam-authors-1.12681

Threats & Challenges

Publishers:

Web portals vulnerable to phishing and duplication.

Possibility of Content Theft from web portals.

Damage to repute and social image within online publishing communities.

Possibility of Identity Theft of Existing registered users.

Threats & Challenges

Authors:

Financial Loss to fake publishing websites.

Personal Identity Theft.

Damage to personal repute due to shady publications.

Institutions:

Risk of hiring wrong resources based on fake-publications.

Damage to organizational repute.

Risk of funding illegitimate projects

Countermeasures & Prevention Protocols

Publishers:

Increased monitoring for phishing websites & scams.

Enforcing Vigilant Cyber Security Initiatives.

Establishing Content Security Protocols on organizational & publication data.

Countermeasures & Prevention Protocols

Authors:

Proper research before making financial commitments to any website.

Using secure & traceable protocols for online payments.

Emphasis upon content review before publishing.

Institutions:

Standardized plagiarism & data structure control on submitted content.

Thorough background research on newly hired resources.

The Way Forward

Scientific literacy must include the ability to recognize publishing fraud.

If you find any such cyber crime activity ,you must report to ACSE as ACSE aims to highlight and condemn such criminal activities related to scientific publishing.

The Way Forward

By working together in collaboration with each other all stake holders can avoid becoming a victim to such online criminals.

ACSE aims to provide such comprehensive and official platform for stakeholders in scientific publishing where all of them can collaborate and work together to ensure mutual safety and progress along with implementing ethical practices.

THANK YOU