Fraudsters copy real journal names, ISSNs, and brand identities to trick researchers into submitting papers — and paying APCs — to websites the original editors never authorised. Here's how to spot them in 2026.
Journal hijacking is the most technically sophisticated scam in academic publishing. Unlike ordinary predatory journals that invent a new title and hope nobody checks, hijackers take an existing, legitimate journal — often a niche or university-published title — and clone it. They copy the real name, the real ISSN, the real editorial board listings, sometimes even the real past issues. Then they create a website that looks close enough to the original that researchers submit papers, pay APCs, and only later discover they were talking to fraudsters the entire time.
This guide explains hijacked journals and how to identify them before you become one of the victims. The defence is specific — it requires different checks than the ones you would use for a standard predatory journal — and if you are submitting to any niche or less-famous journal, these checks are essential.
Domain owned by the actual publisher or scholarly society. Listed on Scopus Source List. Editorial board members acknowledge the journal publicly.
Near-identical URL using a different TLD (.info, .com, .org) or a typo. Copies the real ISSN, branding, editorial board. Collects APCs and disappears.
Journal hijacking is not rare. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, launched in 2022 by Dr. Anna Abalkina at Freie Universität Berlin in collaboration with Retraction Watch, has catalogued hundreds of cloned journals. It has become the single most important public resource for verifying whether a journal website you are looking at is the real one.
For years, hijackers focused on niche, trade, print-only, or non-English journals — titles whose websites were simple enough to clone and whose legitimate publishers lacked the legal resources to defend the brand. In late 2024 that changed. A fraudulent outfit calling itself "Springer Global Publication" cloned thirteen journals from Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley simultaneously, including the Journal of Academic Ethics and Machine Intelligence Research. Major publishers responded with legal action; the clone domains were taken down. But the pattern has escalated — and new clones appear every month.
Journal hijacking works through a small number of repeatable methods. Recognising them makes the scam far easier to spot.
The hijacker builds a website using the real journal's name, ISSN, editorial board names, and often past issues copied directly from the original. They register a similar-looking domain (different TLD or minor spelling variation) and go live. Researchers Google the journal, find the clone first, and submit.
Many smaller journals let their domain registrations lapse between funding cycles. Hijackers monitor expiring domains and buy them the moment they become available. Overnight, the real journal's URL points to a fraudulent clone — while legitimate editors continue publishing elsewhere, unaware.
The worst scenario. Hijacked content sometimes slips into Scopus or Web of Science before detection, because the ISSN and title match a legitimate indexed journal. Researchers cite fraudulent papers believing they are citing legitimate ones. Scopus and Web of Science eventually clean it up — but the damage lasts for months.
Big-publisher journals (Elsevier, Springer, Wiley) are harder to clone because their websites have distinctive designs and legal teams defend them. Niche journals, university-published titles, non-English journals, and trade journals are the primary targets. If you are submitting to anything outside the major commercial publishers, the hijacking risk is meaningfully higher — and verification matters most.
This is the workflow that catches almost every hijacked journal before you submit. It takes about three minutes.
Search scopus.com/sources or mjl.clarivate.com. Click the publisher link from inside the indexing database, not from Google. Indexing databases typically link to real publishers.
Search the journal name at retractionwatch.com under the Hijacked Journal Checker. If the journal is listed, the URL shown is the fraudulent one — the real journal exists at a different address.
Look up the ISSN at portal.issn.org. This shows the official registered publisher and URL for that ISSN. If the website you are looking at does not match, it is probably hijacked.
Real established journals have domains registered for 10+ years. Look up the domain at whois.com. If an "established" journal's domain was registered in the last 6–12 months, it is almost certainly a clone.
Hijackers often use .info, .com, or .org variants when the real journal uses a different TLD. Always double-check: is the real domain journal.org or journal.info?
Pick one editorial board member, Google their institutional email (not the one on the journal website), and send a brief note: "I'm considering submitting to [Journal]. Can you confirm the correct website?" Real editors respond within days.
The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker is free, actively maintained, and open to community submissions. It should be your first stop for any journal you did not find through a direct Scopus or WoS link. A one-minute search here prevents the months of recovery work a hijacked-journal submission creates.
A few cases illustrate how serious the problem has become.
A legitimate trade publication focused on graphic arts technology has been cloned at least five separate times by different fraudulent networks. Each clone targets a different researcher community and runs for months before detection. Some of the clone content even reached Scopus before being removed.
A Dutch botanical journal hijacked twice by different operators. The real journal is a low-volume, niche publication that never received the legal protection bigger titles can afford.
The first major-publisher hijacking wave. Journal of Academic Ethics and Machine Intelligence Research were cloned alongside 11 other titles using domains like springer.uk.com and sciencedirects.com. Registered September–November 2024, taken down after Springer Nature legal action in early 2025.
If you suspect you submitted to a hijacked journal rather than the real one, move quickly. The recovery process is similar to the general predatory-journal recovery path, with a few additions specific to hijacking: (a) contact the real journal's editorial office to alert them — they often want evidence for their own legal case, (b) check whether your paper has been "published" on the clone site and screenshot it, and (c) do not assume the paper is safely withdrawn just because you stopped responding to the clone publisher.
For the full step-by-step recovery process, see our guide on what to do if you submitted to a predatory journal. For the broader framework on journal risk assessment, the pillar guide is how to identify predatory journals, and for historical context on blacklists see our post on Beall's list in 2026.
When verifying any journal, never reach its website by typing the journal name into Google. Instead, start from Scopus Source List or Web of Science and click through. Two clicks, starting from a trusted source. This single habit eliminates most hijacking risk because search engines can return cloned sites above the real ones.
Hijacked journals are the sophisticated end of academic fraud. They exploit the legitimate reputations of real journals to extract fees and papers from researchers who did their homework on the journal but not on the website. The defence is specific and simple: always reach the journal through an indexing database, check the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, verify the ISSN on the official ISSN Portal, and examine the domain registration date before submitting.
Hijacked journals are growing in number and sophistication. Build the two-click habit now. It is the single most important protection for any researcher submitting to a niche or less-famous journal in 2026.
Our free Predatory Journal Checker cross-references Scopus, Web of Science, DOAJ, Beall's archive, and hijacked-journal records — all in one search.
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