To spot a predatory journal, check its ISSN and indexing yourself in Scopus Sources, the Web of Science Master Journal List and DOAJ. Don’t trust the journal’s own website for this, and then look for promised fast acceptance, early payment requests and unofficial metrics. Almost every PhD scholar in India is getting these emails. They ask you to publish in a “Scopus-indexed”, “UGC-approved” or “high impact factor” journal, with review in one week and publication soon after. Some are just low-quality journals. Others are hijacked websites that copy a real, indexed journal and take fees from scholars running against a deadline.
There is a checklist here which takes about fifteen minutes, to run before you submit anywhere. Hijacked and clone journals work a little differently, and that is covered here, with the unofficial metrics such sites show. Careful people also get caught, so the last part covers what to do if you already submitted or paid.
Nothing here needs a paid subscription, and the free official tools we use are linked in the sources at the bottom. Last checked September 2026.
Predatory, hijacked and clone journals: what’s the difference?
People use these three words loosely. Still it is worth knowing which is which, as you catch each type with a different check.
- Predatory journals do exist under their own name, so in that sense they are real. But they collect fees and give little or no real peer review, editing or archiving. Some even have a proper ISSN.
- Hijacked journals are unauthorised websites. They copy the title and ISSN of a genuine journal, many times an indexed one, and sometimes even its design. The real journal has no connection with the site, so a paper “published” there will not appear in the real journal or in Scopus under it.
- Clone journals is the word Indian scholars mostly heard through UGC-CARE. It means a website pretending to be a genuine listed journal, many times a print-only title with no website of its own. Cloning is one kind of hijacking. Our UGC-CARE guide explains why it was so common.
Some journals fall in a grey area. They were once legitimate and indexed, and then quality went down, sometimes after a change of owner. Scopus and Web of Science drop such titles from time to time. That is why you must check the indexing status also. Only finding the name in the list is not enough.
How to check a journal’s indexing in five minutes
Do these checks first. Most problems come out here only, before you waste time on the journal’s website, which is full of informations written to make the journal look good.
- Find the ISSN independently. Search it on the ISSN Portal and see if the registered title, country and publisher match the website you are looking at.
- Search Scopus Sources with the ISSN. When the journal shows up, see that coverage runs till now and no “discontinued” note is there.
- Search the Web of Science Master Journal List with the ISSN. Note which index it is in (SCIE, SSCI, AHCI or ESCI).
- If it is open access, search DOAJ. Genuine open access journals are very often listed there. If a journal claims open access and DOAJ membership but is missing in DOAJ, one of the two claims is false.
- Compare the website address with the one those databases have recorded. Same title and ISSN but a different domain? Stop there itself, because hijacked journals work like that.
- Check the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker with the journal title also.
The main idea is the direction of travel. Start from the database and click its link to reach the journal. Don’t start from a website and believe what it says about databases. Anybody can put a copied Scopus logo on their website, so that badge alone proves nothing. To go through the Scopus Sources check screen by screen, see our Scopus indexing guide.
Signs to check in emails and on websites
One sign alone does not prove a journal is predatory, and some small genuine journals have clumsy websites. But these signs mostly come together. When three or four show up for one journal, better to send your paper elsewhere.
| What you see | Why it is worth checking |
|---|---|
| An unsolicited email praising your “esteemed” recent paper and inviting a submission within days | Real editors also invite papers sometimes. But a “Dear Researcher” mail full of praise and a deadline is mostly sent in bulk. |
| Acceptance or publication promised within a fixed number of days | Real peer review depends on when volunteer reviewers are free. So a legitimate journal gives acceptance and publication dates only after review. |
| Payment requested before, or at the same time as, acceptance | A genuine article processing charge is invoiced by the publisher after acceptance, and the fee policy is clear on the website. |
| “Indexed in” a long list: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Index Copernicus, “ISI”, DRJI, CiteFactor | Google Scholar and ResearchGate pick up almost anything and don’t filter for quality. With such a long list of little-known names, mostly the important indexes are not in it. |
| An “impact factor” that isn’t from Clarivate | The Journal Impact Factor comes from Clarivate only. “Global Impact Factor”, “Universal Impact Factor” and such numbers come from unrelated organisations. |
| Very broad scope, such as engineering, management, medicine and humanities in one journal | A genuine journal keeps to a defined field so the editors can find reviewers who know the subject. |
| Editorial board with no verifiable affiliations, or names you can’t find elsewhere | Some journals list people on the board without their knowledge. Real editors mostly mention the journal on their own university page. |
| Gmail, Yahoo or similar contact addresses; no physical address | Established publishers use their own domain for email and give a real postal address. |
| Many issues a year packed with dozens of unrelated papers | A sudden jump in the number of papers is one of the patterns that makes Scopus re-evaluate a journal. |
Read the journal, not the homepage
Open three recent articles. Check whether they belong to the journal’s field, whether the references are real and correctly formatted, and whether the English is edited. Look at the dates also. “Received 2 March, accepted 5 March” gives no time for any real peer review. Many times what a journal has already published tells you more than its homepage.
Official and unofficial metrics
Indian scholars are asked about impact factor all the time, so some journals show numbers that look like one. You can separate the real ones as follows.
Metrics that are real (and where they come from)
- Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is issued only by Clarivate, in Journal Citation Reports, and only for journals in the Web of Science Core Collection.
- CiteScore comes from Elsevier and is based on Scopus data. You can see it free on Scopus Sources.
- SJR and quartiles are worked out by SCImago from Scopus data. They are free to see on the SCImago Journal & Country Rank site.
Numbers that are not official metrics
- “Global Impact Factor”, “Universal Impact Factor”, “International Impact Factor” and other names like these. None is a Clarivate product. Unrelated organisations issue them.
- “ISI indexed”. ISI was the old name of the company whose products later became Clarivate’s. Today several unrelated organisations use the letters “ISI”.
- Index Copernicus Value (ICV). This score is from a commercial database in Poland. It is not an impact factor, and neither Scopus nor Clarivate accepts it. Predatory journals show it a lot, but having an ICV does not mean the journal is indexed.
- SJIF, “Scientific Journal Impact Factor”, “Cosmos Impact Factor”. These are in the same group. None of them is from Clarivate or Scopus.
A real metric can be checked at its source in less than a minute. No number there, then for you that claim is still unverified. What each genuine number actually measures is there in our metrics guide.
The Think. Check. Submit. checklist
Think. Check. Submit. is a long-running checklist across the publishing industry, backed by groups like COPE, DOAJ and STM. Read it fully once. For Indian scholars these questions are the most useful.
- Have you or people you work with heard of this journal? Have you read any articles from it?
- Is the journal’s name its own, or can it be mixed up with some other journal easily? Are you able to cross-check it on the ISSN Portal?
- Can you find out easily who the publisher is, and reach them by phone, email and post?
- Does the journal say clearly what type of peer review it follows? The checklist says in so many words that the journal should not promise acceptance or a very short review time.
- Does it say clearly what fees you will pay, for what purpose and at what stage?
- Is the publisher a COPE member? For an open access journal, is it listed in DOAJ?
As per the checklist itself, you should submit only when your answer to most or all of these questions is “yes”.
If you have already submitted or paid
Even careful scholars fall into this, mostly when a deadline is near. Don’t waste time, and do everything in writing.
If you have submitted but not signed anything
- Withdraw by email immediately. Write plainly that you withdraw the manuscript, with the title and any manuscript ID. Add that you do not consent to its publication and do not transfer any rights. Keep copy of the mail you send.
- Do not sign a copyright transfer or licence agreement. They keep that signed agreement and later point to it when you ask them to take the paper down.
- Do not pay, even when they say there is a fee for withdrawal. There is no legitimate reason to charge for withdrawing a paper that never had real review.
If you have paid or the paper is already online
- Request removal in writing. State that you never agreed to publish in a non-indexed journal, or that the website gave false details about itself. Many will not even reply. Still, having it in writing helps you.
- Keep every email, invoice and payment record. For a bank or UPI payment, phone your bank quickly and raise a dispute. If the journal was pretending to be some other journal, file a report on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in).
- Tell the genuine journal when the site you used was a hijacked one. Publishers mostly want such evidence so they can get the fake site taken down. Report it to the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker as well.
- Talk to your supervisor before sending the paper to any other journal, and discuss about how the new editor may see it, because an old version still sitting online can be taken by that journal as prior publication. Write the whole story in your cover letter, that is what is usually advised, and many editors are fine to consider the paper after knowing what happened.
How to choose a journal safely in the first place
- Start from your own reference list. The journals that published the papers you cite most are usually a good home for your work also, and you already know they are genuine.
- Ask your supervisor and department where your colleagues got published recently. Also ask which journals your university accepts towards the PhD.
- Use official journal finders that established publishers give, but confirm each suggestion again on Scopus Sources or the Master Journal List.
- Plan the timeline realistically. The most common reason scholars land in these journals is time pressure. Genuine review usually takes months (see how long publication really takes), so start early.
Want a specialist to help with this in your own work? Journal Manuscript Preparation: a free first consultation, then a written scope and fixed quote.
Sources
FAQ
Questions scholars ask
Is there an official list of predatory journals I can check?
No official blacklist exists that is both current and reliable. Beall’s list itself was taken down in 2017, and whatever copies you find online now are old ones. It is safer to check positive lists such as Scopus Sources, the Master Journal List and DOAJ. For websites that pretend to be another journal, use the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker.
The journal is listed in Scopus. Can there still be a problem?
Yes, it can go wrong in two ways. One, the website in front of you could be a hijacked copy of a genuine Scopus journal. Or Scopus might have discontinued that journal, which does happen. So look at the coverage years, and open the journal website only through the link given in Scopus.
Is paying an article processing charge a sign of a predatory journal?
Not by itself. Plenty of reputable open access journals charge APCs. Worry only when the fee is not clear or they are asking for it before acceptance. Also watch for payment to a personal account or an agent, and fees for “fast-track” acceptance.
An agent says they have a “tie-up” with a Scopus journal. Is that legitimate?
At a genuine journal it is the independent review that decides acceptance. If a deal is able to change that decision, the review is not independent, simple. We check any journal for you free of cost. You only have to send us the name.
Can I get my money back from a predatory journal?
Possible sometimes, through your bank or payment provider, if you are quick. Getting it back from the journal is mostly not possible. So keep every record and raise the dispute early. Impersonation or fraud you can report on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal also.
