In a recent development, Scopus, operated by Elsevier, has taken a significant step by removing all homepage links to indexed journals following the revelation of compromised content from hijacked journals within its database. This move comes in response to findings that content from numerous hijacked journals had been included in the Scopus database, shedding light on a concerning trend.
Retraction Watch has been documenting the phenomenon of hijacked journals since 2022, with a recent paper published in November revealing that data from 67 legitimate but hijacked journals had been compromised in Scopus over the past decade leading up to September 2023. Among these, 33 journals indexed unauthorized content, while 23 compromised the homepage link of legitimate journals by redirecting it to a hijacked version.
Elsevier initiated an investigation into the issue after being informed in early December, and on December 18, the publisher announced its decision to remove all journal URLs. However, despite this action, the indexing of papers from hijacked journals persists. Just a day after the blog post announcing the removal of URLs, Scopus alerted users about new documents indexed from the Hunan Daxue Xuebao/Journal of Hunan University Natural Sciences.
The paper titled ‘Solution to the Klein-Gordon Equation Using FEM’ was published on the website jonuns.com, hosting a cloned version of the legitimate journal. Scopus currently indexes papers from both authentic and cloned journals, resulting in different paper titles published on overlapping pages of the same issues.
The ongoing challenge lies in the quick changes made by hijacked journals to their links, raising questions about the effectiveness of deleting homepage URLs as a solution. Notably, non-authentic content has been present in the Scopus database since 2013, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive strategy to address the infiltration of hijacked journals.
While Scopus has taken steps to address the issue, concerns remain about the persistence of unauthorized content. The paper ‘Solution to the Klein-Gordon Equation Using FEM’ has been removed, but other unauthorized content in the same journal remains. Additionally, the lack of a ‘view at publisher’ option for many journals indexed by Scopus further complicates the resolution of this complex issue, particularly for those without DOIs or available only in print. It's worth noting that the 'view at publisher' option is exclusive to the subscription version of Scopus.
