title: Detecting Hijacked Journals by Using Classification Algorithms.
abstract: Invalid journals are recent challenges in the academic world and many researchers are unacquainted with the phenomenon. The number of victims appears to be accelerating. Researchers might be suspicious of predatory journals because they have unfamiliar names, but hijacked journals are imitations of well-known, reputable journals whose websites have been hijacked. Hijacked journals issue calls for papers via generally laudatory emails that delude researchers into paying exorbitant page charges for publication in a nonexistent journal. This paper presents a method for detecting hijacked journals by using a classification algorithm. The number of published articles exposing hijacked journals is limited and most of them use simple techniques that are limited to specific journals. Hence we needed to amass Internet addresses and pertinent data for analyzing this type of attack. We inspected the websites of 104 scientific journals by using a classification algorithm that used criteria common to reputable journals. We then prepared a decision tree that we used to test five journals we knew were authentic and five we knew were hijacked.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer and Information Technology, Foolad Institute of Technology, Foolad shahr, Isfahan, 8491663763, Iran.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andoohgin Shahri
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer and Information Technology, Foolad Institute of Technology, Foolad shahr, Isfahan, 8491663763, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Davarpanah
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Jazi
authors.affiliation: Progressive Science Institute, Box 5335, Berkeley, CA, 94705, USA.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borchardt
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran. Mehdidadkhah@mail.um.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dadkhah
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D008192:Deception; D003663:Decision Trees; D034742:Electronic Mail; D005607:Fraud / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D063867:Identity Theft; D020407:Internet; D009938:Organizations; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000145:classification / Q000592:standards; D011643:Publishing; D011996:Records; D012106:Research; D012108:Research Personnel; D013800:Theft
keywords: Academic ethics; Editorial process; Hijacked journals; Internet fraud; Spam emails