(9 Oct 2023) In 2022, Guillaume Cabanac noticed something unusual: a study had attracted more than 100 citations in a short span of less than two months of being published. Cabanac, a computer scientist at the University of Toulouse in France, initially flagged the study on PubPeer after it was highlighted by the Problematic Paper…
(4 Apr 2023) The hijacking of the Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences started in 2019, when the web domain of the clone journal was created. This fraudulent journal could continue to publish dozens of papers, charging 300 euros each, while the genuine journal, according to the information on one Chinese website, ceased publishing…
(29 Apr 2023) Universities and colleges tend to have strict anti-piracy policies for students. In the United States, this is very much a necessity since its required by law. While most students play by the rules, a worrying trend is developing where outsiders exploit university websites to promote piracy scams. Torrent Freak has the…
(9 Mar 2023) Hindawi, the open access publisher that Wiley acquired in 2021, temporarily suspended publishing special issues because of “compromised articles,” according to a press release announcing the company’s third quarter financial results. The announcement follows scrutiny from sleuths, and the publisher retracting hundreds of papers for manipulated peer review last September, after…
(7 Sep 2021) From Retraction Watch: Two years ago, we reported on a website based in Russia that claimed to have brokered authorships for more than 10,000 researchers. (Apparently, neither our coverage nor a cease-and-desist letter from Clarivate Analytics had any effect on the site’s operations.) And now, we bring you news of what…
(2 Aug 2021) News from India: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has declared 24 “self-styled” institutes fake and found two more in violation of norms, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday. Pradhan made the statement in response to a written question in Lok Sabha. “Based on the complaints received from the students, parents,…
(26 November 2014) Some University members have received an email that purports to come from the university library informing users that their accounts have expired. A link is provided for account reactivation. Recipients are advised to delete the email. The news is here. Email scams involving libraries are not new. University World News has recently…
(11 September 2014) An IT security company in the United States has found that Chinese online retailers are selling email addresses from top universities around the world, providing buyers with access to university libraries, journal subscriptions, student discounts and a host of other benefits including access to software developer programmes. “Recently we found email accounts…