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
recognized institution
 Prey
whatsoever
with
any
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was taken down immediately and unpublished.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
wwww.scialert.com
Fake
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-scamauthors-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
users.
of Identity Theft of Existing registered
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
 Enforcing
Vigilant Cyber Security Initiatives.
& scams.
 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