Fraudsters are repeatedly sending emails to authors using fake email addresses that resemble those of a reputable journal, informing them that their submitted or reviewed manuscript has been accepted and requesting payment of the publication fee. In a recent case at the University of Graz, the sender pretended to be the chief publishing officer of Frontiers.
Among other methods, the fraudsters use researchers’ publicly accessible publication lists, which include manuscripts that have been submitted but not yet published. This means that the sender knows the specific publisher or journal title the manuscript was submitted to and names it in the email, increasing the impression that such fraudulent emails are genuine.
If you receive an email requesting payment of a publication fee, please pay attention to the spelling of the publisher’s name or journal title, which is often slightly altered (Frontier instead of Frontiers, for example), as well as to the sender's email address and domain. Reputable journals use their own domains, not free domains such as gmail.
If you have any questions, please contact the publication services team at ub.publikationsservices(at)uni-graz.at. If you have any questions regarding publications under the university’s publishing agreements, please contact ub.zeitschriften(at)uni-graz.at.
In addition, the publication services offer workshops and information on other fraudulent practices associated with fake journals and on quality assurance in publishing:
- Publication services will host the online workshop „Qualitätsmerkmale von Zeitschriften – Kriterien für die Journal-Auswahl & Erkennen von Fake Journals“ on 22 Oct, 11:00-12:30. The workshop will be held in German.
- You can get a brief overview (in German) of the topic of fake journals and predatory publishing in the short video „Fake Journals - Was sind sie und wie damit umgehen?“
- You can find more information about fake journals and a guideline for recognising fake journals on the publication services website.
If you have any questions about journal selection or a suspicious journal or would like further training on this topic for your department, research group or project group, please contact ub.publikationsservices(at)uni-graz.at