Clone, Predatory and Fake Scopus Journals: How to Check a Journal's Real Indexing | ThesisLikho

ThesisLikho Editorial Team · November 2026 · 15 min read

You spend two years collecting data, six months writing a paper, and then pay a publication fee to a journal that promised "Scopus indexing in 15 days." Months later, your RAC or selection committee tells you the paper does not count. The journal was a clone, or it was dropped from Scopus long ago. Your research is now stuck in a worthless journal, your money is gone, and you must start again. This guide shows how these traps work and gives you a step-by-step method to check any journal before you submit.

1. How Big Is the Problem?

Predatory and fake publishing is not a small, occasional scam. It is a large, organised industry.

The same study found that authors paid an average article processing charge of US$178 per article, and that Asia and Africa contributed three-quarters of the authors.^[2] India features heavily in this picture. The Shen and Björk study estimated that Indian academics contributed 35% of the articles published in such journals between 2010 and 2014, though the authors noted their figures were rough estimates.^[3] A separate analysis of 1,907 papers in about 200 likely predatory biomedical journals found that 27% of corresponding authors were from India, followed by the United States at 15%.^[4]

Why does this happen? A study published in Current Science asked authors of Indian papers in predatory journals. About 70% agreed there was an "in-built pressure" to publish, linked to appointments, promotion and tenure. The authors also noted that young researchers are especially vulnerable when PhD programmes require one to three publications before thesis defence.^[5] That study found 51% of such articles came from private or government colleges, and 90% of academics said they paid publication fees from their own pocket.^[6]

The newer and more dangerous threat is the clone or hijacked journal. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, started in May 2022 with just over 100 entries, had grown past 400 entries by December 2025. Its curator, Anna Abalkina, estimates that 70–80 new hijacked journals appear every year.^[7]

2. Clone, Predatory and Fake-Indexed Journals: What's the Difference?

These three terms are often mixed up, but each works differently, so each needs a different check.

Clone (hijacked) journals in detail

Hijacked journals copy a legitimate journal's title, ISSN and other details, usually without the original journal's permission.^[8] Abalkina describes hijacked journals as a cybercrime and a scam. They are fewer than predatory journals, but their effects on science are real.^[9] Even top publishers are targets. She has reported a growing number of hijacked Elsevier journals, and noted that some journals have been hijacked several times by different networks.^[7]

Here is the worst part: some hijackers have managed to get their fake content into Scopus itself. In one documented case, a clone website's content ended up indexed in Scopus. The site was later deactivated and Scopus deleted the unauthorised content.^[10] If that happens to your paper, it can disappear from your profile. After these revelations, Scopus removed all links to journal homepages from its database.^[11] This matters for your checking method, as explained in Section 5.

Predatory journals in detail

Researchers at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute identified common warning signs of predatory journals. These include very low article fees (under US$150), spelling and grammar errors on the website, an overly broad scope, and language aimed at attracting authors rather than readers.^[4] These journals often send heavy spam email. Many use misleading names starting with "International" or "American" even when they are based elsewhere.^[12]

Fake or expired indexing claims

A journal can be honestly indexed in Scopus one year and dropped the next. Scopus keeps re-evaluating titles. When a title stops meeting its quality standards, it goes on the Discontinued Sources list on the Scopus info site.^[13] Many questionable journals keep showing an old Scopus logo long after being dropped. Others never had indexing at all and simply copy the logo.

3. What You Really Lose

• Money: Publication fees, agent commissions, and often a second fee when you republish properly.
• Time: Months wasted waiting, plus the time needed to rewrite and resubmit. For a PhD scholar facing an RAC deadline, this can delay thesis submission by a semester or more.
• Your research itself: Once published, even in a fake journal, most reputable journals will not accept the same work, because it counts as prior publication. Your best data can become permanently stuck.
• Reputation: Selection committees, foreign universities and postdoc supervisors do check. A CV full of predatory journals can raise questions about your judgement.
• Credit for the work: Papers in clone or discontinued journals may be rejected by your university, may not count for API scores, and may disappear from databases.

Research on journals discontinued from Scopus for "publication concerns" found that predatory behaviour was common among them, and that their papers continued to be cited even after discontinuation.^[14] In other words, poor-quality work keeps circulating, but the authors still do not get the credit they hoped for.

4. Warning Signs You Can Spot in Five Minutes

Before any formal check, read the journal's website and your emails with a critical eye. Treat each item below as a red flag. One flag means "check carefully." Three or more mean "walk away."

In the email or offer

• Unsolicited email praising your "excellent previous work" and inviting you to submit.
• Promises such as "acceptance in 48 hours," "publication in 7–15 days," or "guaranteed Scopus."
• An agent or "consultant" who offers authorship slots or guaranteed publication.
• Communication from Gmail, Yahoo or other free email addresses instead of an institutional domain.
• Requests for payment before peer review, or through personal bank accounts or UPI.

On the journal website

• Scope covering unrelated fields, such as "engineering, management, medicine and social sciences."
• Fake or unfamiliar metrics such as "Global Impact Factor," "Universal Impact Factor" or "Index Copernicus value" shown as if they were the Clarivate Journal Impact Factor.
• Archive papers whose topics do not match the journal title. Abalkina points out that in many hijacked journals, paper topics do not correspond to the journal's name.^[7]
• An editorial board with no verifiable affiliations, missing photos, or names you cannot find elsewhere.
• Spelling mistakes, broken links, or a newly built website for a journal that claims decades of history.
• No clear peer-review policy, no ethics policy, no physical address.

5. Step-by-Step: How to Verify a Journal's Indexing

Follow these steps in order. Do them yourself. Never rely on a screenshot or certificate sent by the journal or an agent.

6. Checking Current Indexing, Not Old Indexing

"Was indexed" and "is indexed" are very different. Many scholars get caught because they check that a journal is in Scopus but not whether it is still being covered.

Scopus's independent Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) re-evaluates titles continuously.^[19] When a title is flagged, the flow of new content is suspended until the re-evaluation is complete. New articles stop being added to Scopus during the review.^[20] In 2017, the board stopped covering 65% of the titles it flagged for re-evaluation because of concerns about publication practices.^[21] Even well-known publishers are re-evaluated. For example, Scopus paused indexing of the MDPI journal Sustainability while re-evaluating it, then continued coverage, while another MDPI journal, Axioms, was removed from Scopus.^[22]

Scopus flags underperforming journals using benchmarks such as a self-citation rate far higher than peer journals, a much lower total citation rate, and a much lower CiteScore.^[23]

How to confirm current status

1. On the Scopus source page, look at the coverage years and the most recent indexed issue. If the last indexed content is a year or more old, ask why.
2. Check the latest Discontinued Sources list, not an old copy forwarded on WhatsApp.
3. Note that a journal may also show "discontinued" if Scopus has received no content from the publisher for three years, even if it was not removed for quality reasons.^[13]
4. Re-check right before submission and again before paying any fee. Status can change in the months between drafting and acceptance.
5. Keep dated screenshots of the Scopus source page and Master Journal List entry for your records. Your RAC may ask for them.

7. Already Submitted to a Suspicious Journal? What to Do

• Before publication: Send a formal, written withdrawal request immediately. Keep copies. Do not pay any further fees. Many predatory journals demand a "withdrawal fee"; you are not obliged to pay it.
• If they publish anyway: Document everything: emails, dates, payment receipts. Inform your supervisor and university research cell.
• If it is a clone of a real journal: Report it to the genuine publisher and to Retraction Watch's Hijacked Journal Checker. Abalkina's team reviews such reports and updates the checker when cases are confirmed.^[7]
• For payment fraud: You can report cybercrime through India's National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in).
• Learn from it: Use the checklist below every time. Most scholars caught once never get caught again.

8. One-Page Pre-Submission Checklist

Conclusion

Your research deserves a home that protects it, not one that traps it. Clone journals, predatory publishers and fake indexing claims all depend on one thing: that you will not check. The tools to check are free and take less than an hour: Scopus Sources, the Discontinued list, the Master Journal List, the ISSN Portal, the Retraction Watch checker and DOAJ. One careful hour before submission can save you months of rework, thousands of rupees, and your best data. Check every time, check the current status, and check the website itself, not just the journal name.